Life Like you Like it
by Crystiline FrACtUrE
Summary: A Duo fic. what more could you want? Romance. Ittle bit of mush.Cynical humor... Lots of humor in fact. A bit of language R&R. Duo meets a young woman whos gone through hard times and decides to befriend her. Could it end up in romance? ?Deathfic?
1. Chapter 1 PreLude

Disclaimer: I own none of it but Duo is my happy toy. I'll share but I get to break him. 

          Duo: I'm NOT A SLUT! 

          Aya: THAS RIGHT YOU MAH BITCH!

          Duo: THAT'S RIGHT! … goddamit.

          Aya: heeeeeeeeheeeeeeeheeeeeeeeee

::Duo's thoughts:: 

~Life aint no bowl of cherries~

~~~~~~~~

"Goddamn"

A white cloth covered in stick black oil hit the floor with a wooshing sound splattering oil. Two partially clean hands came up to wipe the grungy youthful face from its mask of grease and matted brown bangs. Violet eyes came open and narrowed at the sight before them.

"Fuggin' bike…" The young man drenched in black fluid mumbled. 

"Duo the garage is closing…"

"Don't worry I'll close up, Hilde." Duo replied deftly, eyes unmoving from the mechanical mess before him. 

"Damn, you're still massacring that hunk of junk?" the murmur came from behind him. Duo looked up and gave a bitterly sarcastic smile. Proudly he skimmed his hands across the lovely smooth surface of black metal. It was hella nice. A motorcycle from scrapped parts, faster than any rice burner and classier than a Harley. 

"Jezzus Christ. Marry the damn thing." Hilde threw her hands up leaning against the doorframe that set the boundary between the dim dusty oil-stanched garage and the cleanly rugged office that belonged to the young woman.  

"You're right, we should get married. I'll be riding her enough."

He sat on the bike and moved his hips on it in a suggestive manner. Hilde scoffed through her slightly traumatic orgasm. 

"Yeah that bike's getting more than I ever did!"

The braided mechanic grimaced. ::Is she ever gonna get off that friggen' subject. I'm not her boy toy anymore.::

In fact their failure-at-human-relations didn't even last a week. They couldn't stand each other as it turned out. If he could have, Duo woulda taken a wrench and beaten himself unconscious to end the talk of their "relationship" right then and there. The gundam pilot did *not * need another "Oh I wasn't worth anything to you" rants. 

          "We make better friends than lovers, Hilde…"

           "YOU NEVER EVEN HAD SEX WITH ME! I WANTED TO GET LAID!"

          "Someone's a bit horny…" 

          "…sorry…"

          "PMS?…"

          "I've got cramps in places I didn't know I could get them…"

          "I know…Gimme the keys…" He walked over to her, his blue mechanic's jumpsuit still drenched in stick viscous liquid, not daring to step too close to the spotless office. "I'll lock up for ya!" Duo held his hand out to her palm ready to receive the jingling chain of keys. "Go home! Take a nice lonnnnnnnng bath, eat the carton of ice cream I stole from Quatre at the supermarket in your freezer I've been hiding, and fall asleep watching a subtitled chick flick." He ended with his signature grin.

          Hilde blushed and dug the clinking metal pieces from her pocket tossing them haphazardly at his chest, smirking as he failed to catch them.     

          "Sure Maxwell. Oh! That reminds me, I'm getting' some hired help tomorrow. I thought you might need an assistant." Her smirk grew more prevalent on her face as she watched Duo's expression contort horribly.

          "Hell no."

          "Duo, don't gimme that. I already told her it was okay."

          "**_HER_**!? Look I got nothing against women. You're great in the garage but I don't want some prissy little bitch pretending she knows something about cars and bikes. You know what they say about women and machinery…"

          "She's skilled you bastard."

          "Screw that." He spun around flicking his braid in a snide manner.

          "Please. You're good with people."

          "What does that have to do with anything?" he ranted back.

          "Stop spazing you're such a woman sometimes."

          "Hilde…" he stood beside his bike," You're not tellin' me something'"

          Duo sat on his bike once more wrapping each finger carefully around the fitted rubber hand bars. His gaze shifted to the short, dark-haired woman. Hilde rocked back and forth nervously under his interrogative stare.

          "You'll see"

          "A little nervous? …"

          "…Tell ya tomorrow…" slowly she turned around, rolling off of the door frame and flicking off the lights to her office leaving the braided young man with only the dim fluorescent garage bulbs. 

                                                  ~ * ~


	2. Chapter 2 Beautiful Dayz

~ * ~

Disclaimer: NOTHINGGGGGGG do I OWNNNNNN *cough * I won duo sexually *cough * (hehe jus' pokin' ^^;;; )

"Seven o'clock Maxwell. Get the fuckin' hell up." 

            Shivering as the body heated blanket was torn from him, Duo winced knowing that if he laid there for another moment, his good ol' buddy Heero would end up bitch slapping him out of bed. He still hadn't recovered from last time. 

            "Dammit…" The braided boy groaned, "please just five more minutes." He quickly pulled a pillow over his head as a shield from the on coming morning.

            "If you don't get up, food'll be gone. Quatre isn't cooking anymore. I, on the other hand will be happy t-"

            "NO! I WANT TO LIVE!" In a pile of sheets and flailing body appendages he rolled off his bed in desperate exhasperation.

            ~~~~

In the bathroom, violet eyes blinked back at him from a clouded mirror. Duo wiped the condensation from the glass holding his white fuzzie towel at his waist with his free hand. He took out another warm clothe from the lower cabinet and threw it over his head, drying the chestnut brown locks. In a matter of an hour, Duo had successfully braided his hair back with a bit of difficulty. He'd probably be wearing a hat today anyway. Quickly he threw on the blue jumpsuit he wore in the garage. 

            "Damn this thing hugs so tight. If I ever had a hard on the whole world would know." Duo checked himself in the mirror. 

                                                ~~~~~~~~

His braid whipped up as he jumped the last flight of stairs and trotted into the kitchen. Wufei sat, pissy as ever, nose buried in a newspaper while Quatre still stood at the stove, the cooking bitch as usual. 

            "Baka." Wufei called out as Duo entered.

            The American blinked and pouted severely. Quatre turned his head over his shoulder giving a lopsided smile, shaking his head.

            "Yeah, whaddya want..."

            "Here." Wufei shoved a piece of paper in view of the lilac eyes, "What's-her-name called about a thousand times," the Chinese man openly complained, "something about a new employee at your garage. She gave me the girls name and the number you should call just in case you'd ever need it. I didn't think you'd have enough intelligence to remember _all those numbers_." Wufei grinned.

            Duo countered with a glare and roughly grabbed the paper crinkling it.

            "Go take your constipation medicine or grow a dick or something…"

            The Chinese man turned irate. 

            "Braided baka." He spat back pathetically.

            ~~~~

Hilde paced about in distress wondering where the…

            "STUPID IDIOT COULD POSSIBLY BE I TOLD HIM TO BE HERE ON TIME!"

            "M-Miss Schbiker…" one of her workers said trying to sooth her from her tantrum.

            "So irresponsible…I CALLED HIM FIFTEEN TIMES!" her uneven breathing suggested she was probably having a stroke. "Where. Is. He."

            The group of mechanics looked from one to another and pointed behind her nervously. She blinked at them all in complete confusion. 

            "GOOD MORNIN' SUNSHINEY!" Duo pecked Hilde on the cheek, leaning his head over her shoulder from behind. Despite her raging hellish anger before, she rolled her eyes as a smile crossed her face. 

            "Maxwell…" 

            "So where's she? I bet she's hott!" He winked at Hilde in a joking manner.

            "Oh yeah about her…"

            "A no-show?"

            "No she's here but I need to tell you something important-…" She was interrupted by a jerk on her arm as her braided employee precariously pulled her towards her office.

            "AH! CHOTTO MATTE! OI OI!"

            "Stop complainin'!" He cracked opened the door to the office slowly, poking his head in. Duo looked around and stopped when he came upon a young girl of about 17, his age, occupying one of the plush chairs. Duo pulled his head back, turning to the irate blue haired woman behind him, nodding vigorously while she in turn gave a scolding shake of her head. Duo burst into the room startling the girl. 

            "Hey the chickie is hott! You were right Hilde!" Duo welled with giddiness.

            "DUO-!"

            The young occupant of the seat smiled a little and giggled. Duo looked over grinning back full force. Hilde seemed shocked to say the least. Shocked at the fact that Duo's idiotic personality amused her or was it something else? 

            "So what's your name beautiful!"

            "Duo you're a failure as a charmer." Hilde murmured giving him a side shot look that smirked at her own insult. 

            Without reserve to control his actions, Duo narrowed his eyes and stuck his tongue out at her and gave a short childish "PFFFFT!" that sent the third impartial party into a fit of giggles. Grinning in satisfaction once again, he walked over joining her in the seat adjacent. 

            "So wha's your name again? I didn't catch it the first time." He gave a welcoming smile.

            "Ayame Himino"  
            "Sweet name for a sweeter lady." She blushed red and seemed to curl back into herself in embarrassment.

            " Maxwell you're so fuckin' corny!"  
            "N-no Ms. Schpiker…it's quiet alright…he's just trying to be friendly…" a small smile of gratitude reassured Hilde that Duo's apparent tasteless comments were welcome in good humor. 

            "Fine. Mr. Maxwell will take you on a little tour of the garage, just so you can get a feel for the environment and all."

            "DO I HAFTA! I got things to work on ya know! Like…okay I really don't have anything to do…" he grinned sweetly, "I would GLADLY take you around."

            "Don't let him fool you. He's not talking about the garage anymore." Hilde sneered back after her condescending bit. She proceeded to exit the room leaving Ayame in the company of the braided mechanic. 

~~


	3. Chapter 3 Star studded skies

~~

Disclaimer: YOU'D BE AMAZED AT HOW MUCH OF GWING I DON'T OWN! (hint: none)

It didn't take long for Duo to realize she wasn't a novice around a toolbox. She understood, to his surprise, everything he explained to her. She was…nice. Not like the other bitches that pretended to know-it-all or the snobs who didn't know anything and pretended to be disinterested. They paced around the large work area for a while together, talking about nothing, Duo's best topic of conversation. 

            "So you…worked around garages before?"

            "Actually my…" she twinged, "my… friend… owns one. I visited it alot you could say."

            Duo blinked. "Friend or…more than that?"

            "Well, he's my boyfriend…" 

::Shit. Why the hell are the decent ones always taken in some way?!::He sighed in spite of himself and proceeded in running his hands through his thick bangs. Oh well, tactic #2.

"Really? I'd like ta meet the guy sometime!" ::so I can tare his balls out.::

"NO!" Ayame shoot out, her whole body tense and shaking for those few seconds. The sharp tone reverberated through the enclosure.

"O-okay then…" Duo's looked like a deer in headlights. 

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I didn't mean to yell at you like that."

"Nah it's cool. Happens all the time." 'The grin' crossed his face, bringing the nervous brunette back to her senses. Her hazel eyes smiled, lighting the green flecks. 

"Ah shit. I didn't even realize! It's practically 6 o'clock."

"R-really?" ::Why the hell does she always sound like she's scared shitless?::

"Yeah and I'm hungry as hell! Wanna join me in a refined cuisine of pizza and soda and maybe a few beers?"

Ayame's voice quieted. "I shouldn't…" 

"YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE! As your boss, it's an order." In a grand show of pompousness, Duo folded his arms and stuck his nose in the air. A smirk to accessorize. God he was loving the abuse of power.

"But it's after hours." She replied in an arrogant tone, smiling back at him.

::THAT'S BETTER! I like 'em feisty.::

"I insist. I always need someone to help me home when I'm trashed!"

"WOW how could I stand up THAT offer!"  Sarcasm oozed from her mouth.  "Hold on I just need to go get my bag." Ayame parted from him walking to Hilde's office door. The mechanic slouched and tilted his head, watching her movements and found something weird about them. She walked with a limp, like a hurt animal trying to drag itself along. It was almost painful to watch her but she seemed so nonchalant about it. He wouldn't mention anything of it. 

~~~~~~~

            "So where're we going?" 

            "I think Nero's pizzeria will be good. 'Sright around the corner…" his voice faded off.

 The night was cool and clean. Chilled enough to see your breath. It was nice for a walk under the street lamps. They acted like little suns, lighting the walkway beside the little, dim convenient stores. Duo had a tendency to space out at times like these. The stars were so beautiful, just being among them like this drove you to silence, even the loud-mouthed shinigami. These were the times in his life he was lost for words.  

"Do you live around here…?" Ayame shatter the silence with a whisper.

"Guess you could say that. I share a house with a few friends, and I use the word lightly." He smiled back at her. ::Aya-chan is a sweetie. I kinda feel like an ass around her! I'm such a loud mouth sometimes. Hope I don't scare her or somethin'…::__

"Must be nice…" ::Nice to share a house?! With those guys?! I can't blame her though, she hasn't met them.:: 

"Yeah right." He shook his head softly, returning his gaze up to the dotted sky. 

"It's really nice of you to go outta your way to take me to eat."

"No problem at all! You kiddin' me?" 

Ayame bumped up closer to him as she walked. She looked a little cold, and the fact she didn't even have a coat didn't help any. She looked nice though. Wasn't too thin or pudgy. A delightfully, curvy in-between. Duo matched her in height but the scary part was it looked like she could take him down in seconds if he was ill prepared. There's something about a woman who can fight back that turned him on. He'd like the challenge of taking her down and…

::NO MORE DIRTY THOUGHTS! . I'll save them for my bedroom.::

Gently, he slid an arm around her and bought her closer to him. In turn, Ayame gently rested her head on his shoulder comfortably. 

~~~


	4. Chapter 4 How apparent

~~~~~~~~~

Disclaimer: *trying to purchase G-wing rights over the phone * WHAT!?! You want 10 MILL.?! CMON! And HOW OLD IS THE SHOW!? YEAH WELL SAME TO YOUR MOM! …nope…I don't got nothing. But if you'd like to lend me, ohhhhhhhh say 9,999,999 dollars… 

"Well, Maxwell aren't WE getting home late…"

The front door of the group home shut and a black coat went flying, landing gracefully on the back of a plush couch.

"What's it to ya Heero?" Duo sat down on next to his coat. "Didja miss me that much." He turned to his cold companion, who looked up from his laptop to receive a mocking kiss blown from the braided baka.

"Fuck off…" He murmured returning to his typing. 

"Don't get TOO friendly Yuy! It might make you vulnerable! OR EVEN WORSE! LIKEABLE!"

"And again…" Heero stood closing his laptop, "fuck off."

"I'm just kidding! Don't leave!" Duo called after him, pouting severely. "Hey! Where is everyone else anyway!" The former deathscythe pilot could hear water running from a nearby faucet. "Don't ignorrrrrrrreeeeeee meeeeeeeeeeeee" Duo jeered.

"They went out clubbing okay?" Heero emerged with a glass of water.

"Liar. Quatre can't take it at clubs. He got group grinded and was never the same."

"Then I don't know where they went."

"Fine be that way." Duo turned around folding his arms and sticking his nose in the air childishly, turning his attention to the nightly news. Wasn't all to intriguing, just one of those snippet reports. Something about Date rape and how women stay in abusive relationships. 

::What kinda fucktard would hurt someone who can't defend themselves. I can just imagine Wu fei blaming the women for being weak or somethin'::

 Deflating his chest of all the air with a long, loud sigh, he announced his boredom of the program with a push on the channel button of the remote. 

"What were you up to tonight, Maxwell." Heero musta been bored as hell to try to start a conversation with Duo, the guy who never stops talking, the one with the endless air supply. 

"For your information," he started out in a superior tone, "I was out with a wonderful young lady. Sweet. Nice. Pretty."

"Taken." The zero pilot couldn't help but let the sneering grin on his face paste itself there firmly.

"How'd you know?"

"Her 'boyfriend', as he calls himself, worked on Quatre's car after you trashed it. Apparently he was incarcerated after beating another worker senseless over a disagreement."

Ignoring the wild accusation that while Duo himself was drunk, stole Quatre's car and took it for a joy ride into a street lamp, he continued this time fiddling with the end of his braid. "What a fucker." He smirked to himself "Oh well, let 'em fight it out."

"There was a rumor going around it was a woman he assaulted."

"Seriously!?"

"Hn."

"Well if it's just a rumor…and Ayame is a smart girl! If she knew that she wouldn't go near him!"

"Are you so sure…" there goes that monotone voice again. The one that use to surface right before Heero pressed that shiny red self-destruct button.

"I'm sure I'm sure!...I think I'm sure."

"Call her you idiot. Make sure she's okay. Christ… see why we didn't get you that puppy? You can't even ensure a human's own safety." The cold one spat out at his more that worried gundam pilot counterpart. 

"GEEZ I'M DIALING! HOLD THE FUCK ON!"

::Goddamit Ayame. Please let her pick it up please let her pick it up.:: the mantra ran through his head about a thousand times before there was a click on the other line.

"HELLO?!" 

Duo froze. The deep, male voice on the other side of the phone forced him to mentally recoil.

"Hello." Duo repeated himself, "Oh…. yeah this is him…okay…yeah I just called to make sure she got in okay…Okay good! Thanks, have a nice night." He ended on a polite note. A breath of relief blew from his lips.

"See! Told ya. Oh and thanks for giving me an aneurysm. Just call the morgue in the morning and tell them my head exploded" Holding his head in his hands, Duo retreated to his bedroom to search for any kinda drug he had that could stop the incessant pounding.

"Hn…" 


	5. Author interjects! nothing to do w the a...

Author interjects!

Yes this is the part where I come in and say something about the story and the reviews, stuff like that.

I thought this might be important ^^- .

To all the people who've given me reviews. It really does mean a lot to someone who thought they couldn't write for beanz. WOHO! I hope ya like what I write in the future. (if anybody's wondering they were all positive! ^^)

Just a warning. I get angsty (only a lil) from here on out. Yes. I do have the random humor chapters and, yes I poke fun at everyone (even duo) at the most random and sometimes uncalled for times. If you don't like lemon then I suggest you don't read the chapters I place warnings for (don't worry they're a lot later).

Graphicness. Yes I think so. OH ITS COMMIN! Not too harshly tho o_o. 

 Don't worry wuffie, trow, and Q. are coming bak in shortly (WHATS A STORY WITHOUT THEM!?!!)

This storyline does deal with some serious stuffs. If you're offended either   
  
a) flame me

Or 

b) stop readin'

Okay that's I'm done with the blurb. NOW ON TO WRITIN'! *starts finishin up chapter 5 * WOHO!

~Life aint no bowl of Cherries~


	6. Midnight snack with a side of angst part...

Disclaimer-NOTHINGGGGGGGGGGGGGG! Im so cornie! 

~Life aint no bowl of Cherries~

~*~

It was around midnight. A freak storm had moved in. Damn newscasters. Who says meteorology is a science… it's more like playing the lottery…

"HEY HEERO!" Duo banged on the wall of his room; the thin barrier that separated the psychotic zero pilot from his loud-mouthed, trigger-happy partner. "HEY! I'M TALKIN' TO YOU! D'YOU HEAR SOMETHIN' OUTSIDE!?"

"Yeah fucktard its called the wind." The acidic reply came.

Rain was beating hard on the rickety panes of glass. It was cold. Damn it was cold. Duo felt his bangs get goose bumps. The precipitation was powerless to the cold breath of ice as it froze in little streaks down the once transparent sheet. It resembled tear drops staining a face. 

"I CAN'T SLEEP!" Duo grabbed a pillow and plopped it over his face laying his hand on top as if to smoother himself into a subconscious state.

"Maxwell, I **WILL** come over there with a baseball bat and * put * you to sleep."

"Never mind…sleeping."

From the front of the house, the door rattled more harshly. Hair in a messy brown clump from restlessness, Duo sat up on his spring-bed mattress. 

Another bang resonated. This one sounding like someone's fists pounding.

Squinting through the darkness, as if it would make any difference, the unbraided one threw his feet over the side of the bed and began his drunken-like stumbling through his room. 

A few more strikes on the rickety wood came as the pilot approached it tiredly. He rubbed his eyes.

::Shouldn't I getta pan or something just in case…Nah I live with a homicidal maniac, one more wouldn't make a difference.::

The fake brass knob twisted, clicking the lock, allowing the hinged piece of coppice to swing. Not even Shinigami could prepare himself for what he saw.

~*~


	7. Midnight snack with a side of angst part...

~*~

Disclaimer: I don't own it but ALL THE ANGST oh yeah that's from mah brain.

~~~

::This isn't real. It's all just a fuckin' dream…this **_can't _**be fuckin **happening**…::

The mass of shaking human, covered in a yellow comforter looked like some kind of creature that had crawled from the highway just after being hit by a car several times.

Violet eyes, welling with sickened fear, scraped slowly over it.

There wasn't an inch of visible flesh that hadn't been slashed or cut or bruised or bleeding. Tears ran down the pale, panic-stricken face where hair had pasted itself haphazardly with the pouring rain acting as its glue.

The lump in Shinigami's throat hardened and made its dominance prevalent, as a squeaky exhalation of air was force from his lungs past his cramped esophagus muscles.

"Jezzus Christ…" what seemed like hours had only lasted for a few seconds.

"Ayame?…"

~~~

Desperation ran through that bruised and battered face. A vicious instinct drove the beaten woman to throw herself into the arms of the shocked young man in an effort to cling to every piece of flesh or clothing she was able to. Ayame was trembling so violently, it was hard to tell if she was merely shaking or having a seizure.

Out of all the intelligent questions that could have helped assess the situation, Duo chose the best one.

"Who the **_FUCK_** did this to you!?!?"

The series of stuttered I's only caused more frustration in those crystal purple eyes. The pilot was too scared to do anything but hold her and wish for everything to be surreal.

"Please stop shaking, please stop crying. Shhh, Shhh, it's okay. Nothing's going to happen…"

"Duo wh-…" Heero halted mid-sentence taking in the scene in the same manner as the witness before him did.

"NOW…get her into the bathroom."

"B- ."

"**Now." **

~*~

Frantic rushing ensued, which made the simple task of carrying her to the bathroom into a taxing mission. Heero was busy running around like a headless chicken trying to find where Wufei had shoved the First Aid Kit after his "katana" incident. Ayame was standing, just barely on her own; seizing, shaking and whimpering incoherent words to an imaginary person that she couldn't tare her eyes away from. Duo, whose unsteady movements had created a disaster in the small enclosure, had finally gained control of his hands enough to turn the knobs of the bathtub. Heero entered moments later, arms full of white wrappings and gauze.

"Get her in and clean her off."

"BUT SHE'S FREEZING COLD!"

"Look I'm not mending dirty wounds. That would make her worse than she is now."

"….. Sh-e's not going to die.…right?"

"…"

~*~

Comments? I really would like to know if anyone's enjoyed the story this far ^^ thank you! 


	8. Chapter 7 Your Angsty Smile

~*~ 

Disclaimer:…….9,999,990 dollars left to raise….

(P.S. I don't own it YET AHAHAHAH)

~Life aint no bowl of cherries~

~*~

Heero and Duo still hadn't come to the fullest realization that what had happened was just a random act of violence against someone who wasn't full prepared. It was deeper than both of them could imagine.

~*~

"Strip her."

"WHAT!?"

"You thought we were going to put her in clothed?"

"NO! Well…yes…"

"You're wasting time!" Heero growled and moved quickly towards her. Ayame recoiled behind Duo, like he was a wall between herself and her offender.

"She's not going to trust me…*you * do it…"

"…Okay…" Having thrown what was left of his values into the nearby toilet, he turned to Ayame, who still clung to the soaking wet comforter. Her lips lined in blue, eyes darkened and so dead, she was nothing like the shy, bright-faced girl he remembered.

Moving in small increments towards her, the massively knotted-haired young man reassured the frail animal with a shushing from his dried lips, finally getting close enough to rest his hands on her shoulders. She flinched.

"We're only trying to help Aya-chan. You need to get washed off and bandaged. It's only a few scratches…"

And with that, something changed in her eyes. Emotions shifted as embarrassment wiped the fear from her body. Ayame clung to the covering, replying to Duo in body language that she'd rather die like this than give up the yellow, bloodstained shielding.

"Fine. I'll let you get undressed yourself. And I'll make sure that perv Heero doesn't look either, I just need that blanket okay?"

Unfortunately both pilots were too dense to realize that there _wasn't_ much to take off under that blanket. 

Duo's smile was so comforting and warm. Without another option she loosened her grip. Duo slid his palms down his Aya-chan's shoulders bringing with them the last line of defense. 

"H-eero…" The lump. The lump in his throat had revived and this time it was holding back with all it's strength a wave of vomit that had boiled up inside.

"What." Cobalt eyes, locked on the warm water cupped in his hands he was testing for temperature purposes, shifted coldly from the tub of water to the pair behind him.

"WHAT THE FUCK DUO!?!"

There wasn't a scrap of cloth on her body. It was sickening. Flesh chunks were actually hanging off her legs as blood seemed to pour out like sweat from her body. She hugged her chest, trying to cover up herself or maybe hold in the last scrap of dignity she had. Duo, never in his life saw something as soul-wrenching as this. Arms, legs, stomach, chest, all bleeding and bruised. 

::Why the fuck didn't I see it before…::

Blood ran down between her shaking, pale legs.

::No. Please no.::

Even the perfect solider was too rocked to put anything into words. There was a mask, an almost humorous expression slapped on the once expressionless face that paled with every inch his eyes scanned. 

Ayame looked on the verge of having a suicidal break down.

::GODDAMIT DO SOMETHING!!!:: His subconscious screamed at him. Duo Maxwell, the almighty shinigami, was staring a rape victim dead in the face with the most disgusted look. God, this was worse than the sexual torture she had been put through moments ago.

"I-it's okay…" Duo shifted foreward and pulled her into himself. He didn't care at that moment if Heero was watching. The whole world coulda been staring at him and it wouldn't have affected the course of actions he took.

"I'm here for ya Ayame…" He picked her up, eyes closed, stinging with an unfamiliar pain, one he hadn't felt since he was ten (1). Warm water pooled around the weak doll he placed in the bath that immediately was tainted with crimson. Duo knelt down on the cool tile floor picking up the wet rag that rested on the floor. He wiped away the dried blood from her lower lip. "And I'll be here for as long as ya need me…"

Duo smiled. Ayame smiled back. 

1) Duo was ten in the Episode Zero manga when he cried over Sister Helen when she died, I believe. If I'm wrong, MAY I BURN IN HELL! (with shinigami)


	9. Chapter 8 Juggling knives

~*~

Graphic-ness! Angsty-ness!

Disclaimer: NOOOOOOOOONE

~~ 

~Life aint no bowl of cherries~

~*~

Fuck 911. Who ever came up with that wanted everyone who ever had a problem to die talking on the phone when they coulda been doing something constructive like running their asses off or stopping the pulsating river of blood that was pouring down their body.

Heero had spent four hours of that restless night right outside of the bathroom screaming into the kitchen phone at the 911 operator who didn't seem to take in the seriousness of the situation as the perfect solider wanted them to.

"No you get the FUCK over here and HELP HER NOW!!!!!…. NO SHE'S NOT IN THE MIDDLE OF BEING RAPED! ARE ALL YOU FUCKING OPERATORS THIS STUPID OR DO THEY JUST HIRE NUMB-NUTS FOR THIS JOB SO EVERYONE CAN DIE!"

Duo smirked as he heard a loud sob from the other side of the phone. 

"DAMMIT DON'T START CRYING!" Heero slammed down the cordless phone onto the receiver, gripping it tightly. 

"Ya know…" Duo humored himself by talking to Ayame who smiled back every once in a while but never said a word, "they probably think Heero's giving birth with the way he sounds like screaming at them."

It was better to be calm with Ayame than to be a ranting idiot, Duo figured, that is until something drastic happend.

Hours past. About 2 or 3. Heero was asleep on the kitchen table. Duo pulled Ayame from the bath tub and had her fully wrapped. Thank god for all those times he had gotten his ass kicked or he wouldn't have known how to mend wounds as bad as this. It was hard to act totally professional while a nude woman, who you found a vague interest in, lay on your bed. 

Silence rang in Shinigami's ears. Damn that silence. It reminded him of such pain. Right after Sister Helen had died, he sat there alone wishing he coulda died with them. He NEVER wanted that quiet again. The silence blamed him for their deaths and condemned him to hell; maybe that's why he talked so much…

"Ayame? Hey…" he gently tapped the side of her face bringing her eyes open. 

"Wha-t's wrong…Duo? Why are you here?"

::Is she kiddin'!? Doesn't she remember anything?::

"Wh- oh no…" A sob cracked out from her dry throat, "I'm so sorry." The bandages on her hands made for a good tissue.

"Sorry for what. It'd be hard to believe you wanted this done to you…you're lucky you didn't die…"

"LOOK AT ME!" She sounded hysterical. The braided one stayed alert just incase he had to pin her to keep her from running from the room.

"Duo I look so horrible. I bet your body doesn't look half as scarred or torn apart as mine does… I look so horrible." The words were becoming an incoherent jumble of syllables.

"Hey, I've had my fair share of scrape ups!" It seemed to calm her down by understating the seriousness of the situation before, but it wasn't working now.

"I'm a whore…" she curled up pulling the blankets to her burning cheeks. "This only happens to prostitutes…why the hell did you help me…I- I SHOULD BE DEAD!" 

"Calm down! Don't get worked up you're still sick. We're going to take you to the hospital and-.."

"NO! PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME GO!!!" 

"AYAM-."

"PLEASE!!!!!"

"…Fine…."

~~~

"Where is this patient I've been told about?"

Morning finally came and the other pilots were back, murmuring about getting stuck in the car on a flooded piece of roadway the previous night. Fortunately, Quatre's cell phone was still working, and Heero was able to call and ask them to pick up the only thing closest to a doctor they could think of.

"Er…ah…Sally?" Duo rubbed the back of his head uneasily, "Ayame, the patient, she's still kinda uppity about the whole fiasco so…"

"I'll go easy on her Duo." Sally's lopsided smile quirked at her lips, "I'm not planning to operate but if I am I'll tell ya."

"WHAT?!"

"It…was a joke…did you sleep any last night? No? Okay. go to bed now."

"BU-."

"Bye!" She shoved him out of his own room.

"HOW'M I SUPPOSE TO SLEEP. YOU TOOK OVER MY ROOM. Aw fuck, I'll use the couch." Duo glared at the door.

"Maxwell." Wufei leaned against the wall parallel with his room entrance. "What happened to the onna? You seem pretty upset." The Chinese ass loved to rub in every weakness he had. So what if the god of death had fucking feelings? 

Those violet eyes bled with defeat. He wasn't gonna try to fight Wufei. Not now at least, the black haired pilot was a speck in this situation. "She won't tell me." The answer was unquestionable. No more comments were made. Not even Quatre spoke. 

Fuck that silence. Duo was starting to believe this _was_ his entire fault.

~~

All five stood there like an oil painting. Eyes flicking from one to another and then to the clock. It'd only been a half an hour. 

"D-." Quatre stuttered out, coiling his tongue back on his words as everyone's eyes bared down on him at once. "Do you have any idea, who could have done this to her?…"

"Hn. Her significant other. I called the police concerning him right around six a.m. and apparently he has various accusations against him already. It'll only be a matter of time."

Duo was too intrigued with the other pilot's reactions to really listen to the rest of the conversation. 

Trowa showed no reaction, but who expected him to anyway? Quatre seemed shaken to the core. And Wufei seemed disgusted.

::Hey the dick head has a soul.:: Duo thought in referencing Wufei.

The wooden dividend, the one separating them from the victim, creaked open. Sally's eyes were glued on the ground like she was trying to count every fiber in the carpeting, with exceedingly wide eyes.

"No. Leave her alone right now." Sally put her arm out, locking her hand on the doorframe like a human gate as the young men tried to file their way in. 

Sally's eyes met theirs, hers almost wishing they could bring themselves to cry. 

"H-how bad?…" Quatre this time sputtered out. 

"There's good news and bad news what do you want first…"

"Good!" Duo popped out hoping it was something along the lines of 'Nothing at all serious happened'.

"Okay…It turns out she * wasn't * raped" 

::Good sign! Someone loves me up there…::

"It looks like someone tried to…rearrange…" the words weren't coming together right at all. "I'll be …blunt…it looks like someone was trying to slice her up from the inside out. And very roughly might I add."

::Fuck the world:: 

"I didn't know you could shove a knife so * far * up like that…" her voice choked up.

~~

Juggling knives leaves cuts that don't heal.

~~


	10. Chapter 9 The best medicine

~~~~~

Disclaimer: for all of you who are dyslexic out there: .gniwg fo yna nwo t'nod I

~Life aint no bowl of cherries~

~~~

"Hilde…yeah its me Duo…hey ya know that new employee…well she won't be commin back to work for a while…"

On the other line Ms. Schbiker knew exactly what was going on before he said anything.

"Otto hurt her again didn't he…"

"Otto? Who's Otto?"

"Ayame's 'significant other'" The dark haired woman's tone suggested disgust at even the thought of categorizing that bastard as someone meaningful. 

"Again?…this happened before?! Why didn't you tell me!?"

"I tried to before you met her idiot. She use to work at her boyfriend's garage, but he assaulted her, and the scum bag was put away for a while. The police said she refused to press charges and all that legal bull shit so they let him go."

::Fuck… that was who Heero was talkin' about!?::

"Man, I am such a fucktard…" His face was then pressed into his palm, while he pulled at his skin with weak fingers, wishing he could rip a layer off.

"Don't be so hard on yourself…I heard you've been taking care of her…"

Duo stopped himself from continuing the talk about Ayame's boyfriend. It pissed him off to think that someone would hurt her like that.

"What's it ta you if I take care 'a her?"

"Nothing. Shit, don't bite my head off. I was just saying she needs someone like you. You're a good guy Maxwell, don't sell yourself short."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Duo glared at the receiver.

"It means stop PMS-ing and help her get better."

"I'm not a doctor ya know, I don't even know the first step to helping anyone 'recover'…" he rolled his lilac eyes.

"Laughter _is _the best medicine."

~~~

Ayame had graced the pilots with her presence for over two weeks. Quatre made her meals and talked with her for a while. Heero would sit with his laptop in the room with her, silent as always. Even Wufei tried to help by pulling her out of bed to do some yoga. 

And consistently Duo came home and sat with her in the living room for an hour or two watching TV. They'd talk between commercials and always got Ayame to laugh when he made fun of the really bad, over dramatic scenes or the squishy mushy romantic shit. He loved the fact that when he got her to go into hysterics she'd start laughing so hard she'd cry. Ayame looked at him with green hazel eyes that failed to shut out every feeling she felt for him since the first time she'd talked to him. She was falling for him hard and Duo…

"Okay look at that! She shoulda just shot him right there but no they had to have an enlightening conversation!" It was an old movie about some kinda murderous "black widow" woman who killed every guy she met. No sex scenes…AT ALL…Shinigami wanted to rip his balls out. But hey, he'd deal with anything to get Ayame to enjoy herself.

"You know they're gonna fall in love in the end!" Ayame nudged Duo's ribs playfully. "You're just a horny bastard! You only wanna see someone have sex so you can jack off!"

::Geez its only been two weeks and I feel like she's known me forever.::

"DO NOT! You talk to Hilde too much!" Duo pulled her in closer and presses his forehead to hers, scrunching his nose up in a grin.

She replied back in a matter of factly way, "She doesn't tell me much! I can figure you out for myself!"

"Can you really now?" Duo planted a soft peck on her nose.

"Uh huh." She melted into him through that small kiss and smiled the way he would. 

Gently, he pulled her to his chest. With a grateful sigh, Ayame nuzzled into the crook of Shinigami's neck. Duo breathed in deeply, filling his lungs with her scent, his senses firing, sending him into a dazed frenzy of emotions. She was so close to him, the first time she'd tired to get close to someone in weeks. It was a special feeling to have someone who wanted just YOU. 

It was true, Shinigami HAD gotten around a lot but had never GOTTEN around to that. So many women, so many chances, but every time he tried he put a mental vice over his balls and choked. He couldn't go through with it. There was a recording in his head of all the things, the stories Sister Helen had told him about love and how much commitment two people had to each other, and with those women…the bond felt so…weak. So pathetic. His cock knew what it wanted but his heart was so strong. He'd always listened to it before and it hadn't failed him yet. Maybe this is what he wanted so badly. No matter how hard he couldn't imagine a day without Ayame talking with him or smiling at his dumbass jokes. It was like a drug he could wean himself from. 

Ayame was busying herself with the warmth of Duo's body, focusing on his strong arms, the way his skin felt, the way she wanted to feel more of that skin pressed against hers. If he wanted sex, he'd get it. Ayame _couldn't_ be scared around him, she OWED this to him. So drunken in that warmth, her thoughts drifted away from her and all she could focus on was Duo in his black pants, his cute white t-shirt; Duo holding her like she was the only one what mattered in the world; the way he smelled so sweetly of cologne; the simple act of warming her with another blanket the handsome man  pulled over just to cover his Aya-chan with. 

"…This is what it feels like to have someone care about you?…" It was a strange question, but it made perfect sense to him in his own intoxicated daze.

"Mm hmm…"

"……..Thank you…for everything…" 

"Everything?" Duo pulled his head back slightly, just enough to view the blushed face of the smiling young woman.

"Don't even pretend…" Whispering, she pulled the violet-eyed young man closer to her…almost on top of her. A smile crossed his face. 

"So this is what I get in retribution?" he breathed out on to her cheek. The black clad body was now laying on top of the female one holding on so tightly to him.

"All of me…" as Ayame spoke her lips caught his, teasing him with every word, "I know it's not much…"

::Wonder what she means by "it". Geez she's an expert at degrading herself:: 

Duo took his lower lip into his mouth a tiny incriment, wetting the parched skin. "Are you kidding…"

Pouty cherry red flesh fluttered along the corner of Ayame's mouth, outlining her lips with short little love touches. "How could I pass up an offer like this…" Duo's body cut him off from verbalizing any longer, urging him to continue to assault her lips with playful patters from his own. 

"Ya know…" He pulled back from her only a bit once again. "A while ago this co-"  Ayame pulled him back down quickly greeting the flustered wide-eyed face with a full throttle kiss. Mouth already open, Ayame took advantage of Duo's shock by making her way in, enjoying his reaction. After the initial thought processes that involved 'What the fuck' and 'this feels gooooooood', Duo gladly began to participate pushing his bubble-gummy tongue against hers in turn.

"You talk to much Maxwell…" she murmured to him through the kiss with a short giggle.

~~

  
DEAR CHEESE THAT WAS SQUISHY! *cant take the bad fluff descriptions she came up with *

Duo: *pats her comfortingly * there there its okay….hey wanna go have sex?

Aya: OKAY ^^!


	11. Chapter 10 Happy thoughts

~~~  
  
Well, THAT was part one. Kinda rushed the story a bit but hey I didn't wanna harp on unneeded detail and all. It sounds like everyone who reviewed my story liked it!!! Believe me I'm still really surprised X_x. Thankyou all -.- * bows to fanfiction readers *  
  
And now for the start of part 2 where I gonna work on the character relations. I really hope no one hates Ayame @_@. She's kinda my favorite character. There's a little bit of ever fangirl (or guy if ya wanna swing that way with Duo. Hehe) in her ^^-.  
  
Duo: less talking, more writing.  
  
Aya: HEY V_V before I make this a DUO DEATHFIC  
  
Duo: you wouldn't DARE  
  
Aya:..YOU'RE RIGHT YOURE TOO HOTT  
  
Duo: the powerrrrrrrrr.  
  
Claimer of Dis: FIBBITY BITTY OOGLY BOOOOO (I Don't own Gundam Wing)  
  
~~  
  
Life aint no bowl of cherries.  
  
~~  
  
Thirty-five days, twenty-two hours and fourty-five seconds. Exactly how long Ayame had been with the five misfit Gundam pilots.  
  
Day ten she made the only dinner Heero had ever enjoyed. He asked for seconds.  
  
Day fifteen she cleaned the whole house and made Quatre the happiest Arabian neat freak in the northern half of the hemisphere.  
  
Since day twenty she had set Duo's alarm for five o'clock in the morning EXACTLY.  
  
And since day twenty-two Shinigami has wanted to kick her ass.  
  
Day twenty-seven Wufei smiled (probably for the first time in his life) after learning Ayame could read and understand his dialect of Chinese.  
  
And on day thirty-two Trowa spoke more than one sentence after she struck up a conversation about her interest in his "past life" around the circus.  
  
By day thirty-four Duo realized something but couldn't put his finger on it.  
  
And on day thirty-five he finally figured it out.  
  
~~~  
  
* Around the end of day thirty-five; 6:32 pm *  
  
"Damn. Shit. Fucka doodle do." Duo yanked the keys out from his clunker of a car and proceeded to the front door in a less than happy mood. It hadn't been a good day at work. He loved the garage. He loved the machinery, but it just made him a little bit cranky being sprayed with oil not once but twice, having a muffler backfire in his face, and an idiot who probably doesn't know an engine from a steering wheel smack him in the shnoz with a wrench. He rubbed his nose again remembering the pain the poor little thing had to endure for hours.  
  
"Stupid keys."  
  
After a struggle with the lock, he threw the door open letting it rebound and dent the wall.  
  
Ayame literally jumped out of her skin, dropping the simmering pot of spaghetti sauce all over the floor.  
  
"Oh no.Duo? Is that you?"  
  
Duo tired hard to crack a smile for her but his look of disgust only worsened the harder he attempted.  
  
"Yeah it's me." He rounded his way into the kitchen and found her on her hands and knees scrubbing up the floor. "Spill something?"  
  
"Just a little sauce. It's like the fifth time anyway." Ayame huffed out a puff of air and got back to her feet. "You sound happy too. Another wonderful day?"  
  
The still dirty garage worker sat down at the kitchen table, putting his hands in his face. "Oh yeah, just PEACHY. Like getting my BALLS run over."  
  
"Anything I can do to help?" Ayame asked knowing nothing could have sedated the angry god of death.  
  
"Shot gun and one bullet."  
  
"Duo!!!"  
  
"Sorry Aya." He pouted in his childish way.  
  
"Awwwww." She made her way from the sink and over to him, drying her hands and throwing the towel on the table. Her sweet smelling limbs wrapped themselves around his neck; cuddling him affectionately, "think of something that'll make you happy, like.uh.sunshine and rainbows?"  
  
"Sunshine gives ya sunburn, and rainbows make me think of carebears and carebears make me queasy." The braided American cringed visibly as visions of little prancing bears with decals on their stomachs singing to him. Torture. Pure madness. And somehow they all looked like Quatre.  
  
::I'd rather have my nipples pierced::  
  
"Okay then think of sex and masturbation and 10 women fondling you at once." Her pink lips screwed up in a sarcastic smirk. Duo seemed to take this into consideration.  
  
Shinigami grinned, "That did make me_happy_but I don't think that's the happy you were shooting for."  
  
A "Duo grin" crossed her face. She pecked him on the ear with a kiss and nuzzled the spot tenderly. "Find one happy thought," she replied quietly planting warm lip marks on the fleshy part of his ear, "and that way, no matter what happens when ya think about it, it'll brighten up your day, no matter how bad."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yup!"  
  
There was a moment of silence where Duo actually contemplated what she said. One could have easily mistaken this as going brain dead. After finishing the barrage of short kisses, the tall cream-and-coffee haired woman flocked back to her cooking.  
  
".I dunno!" His eyes scrunched up in anxious confusion, "What's your..er ah. 'Special thought'?" he moved his fingers mimicking quotation marks.  
  
Ayame blushed a light pink. "My thought?"  
  
"Yeah! It'll give me inspiration for mine." He paused. "Wow this is really corny." Duo admitted blatantly.  
  
"Just think about it. You're a genius Duo Maxwell I think you can think figure one out." She offered him a warm forkful of sauced up noodles. He graciously accepted it, sucking it down with an appreciate "mmm" to follow.  
  
"Well can you at least tell me yours?"  
  
Ayame pulled a chair out and plopped down. "Fine." The reluctant reply came.  
  
He waited.  
  
She stared at him as if she was trying to bore a hole through his forehead and out the other braided end.  
  
After a few minutes the silence got to him.  
  
"Well, what is it?"  
  
Ayame smiled meekly. "I'm looking at it."  
  
~~  
  
*Night; Day thirty-five; 9:47 *  
  
"Hello Blue moo moo slippers!" Duo stared down at the blue cows on his feet from his seated perch on his fluffy-mattressed bed. They were a gift from Aya-chan. Although they were completely stupid looking and somewhat gay, she thought they were cute so what the hell it wouldn't hurt.if he didn't wear them around anyone he knew.  
  
Wufei swung stiffly around into the entrance of his room, "Maxwell." his glance fell from the braided American's face to the fuzzie blue animals on his feet, "I won't ask."  
  
"What the hell do you want Wuffie." Duo shot back a glare, blushing a little while trying to hide his feet.  
  
"Quatre told me to tell everyone something about a party on Friday, blah blah blah." He waved his hand in boredom, like talking to Duo was a chore.  
  
"D'you know who's commin'?"  
  
The Chinese man's face contorted horribly in a sarcastic look, one eyebrow raised, "He decided to invite a few homeless people from off the street and those whores that hang around the street corner at night sometimes."  
  
"REALLY!?"  
  
"No dumbass." The Chinese pilot rubbed his temples, "Why, Nataku, have you banished me to such a place where I must live with an American asshole who has not a working brain c-"  
  
As Wufei ranted, Shinigami rose from his seat and walked over to the door, "Shut the fuck up and get all holy in your own room." He slammed the door in his face.  
  
He already knew the people who were coming. The same people who came every time. Duo felt the need for new faces to be present but that would mean inviting his friends who WERE the prostitutes and homeless people Wufei was speaking so badly about.  
  
"Whatever, it's not like I'll need to be present. God I hate get-togethers. Especially when it involves that creepy double brow girl and Lady Une." Chills played his spine like a xylophone, giving him a slight shake.  
  
The chestnut haired boy made his way back to the bed greeting the comforter face first. He laid there for a while, the cow slippers keeping his feet toasty warm, reminding him of their giver.  
  
"Ayame." Duo was on the edge of consciousness and La La Land. He remembered the time when his Aya-chan had told him that she belonged to him; mind, body, and soul; like so many other women had. If it had happened before, why now. Why did it matter to him so much whether her love was real or fake.  
  
* 10:00 pm *  
  
:: So many other women.why the hell do I hafta care whether this one stays or goes.::  
  
Every night she came in at ten-fifteen and told him she loved him, took his laundry, and left; of course he never replied, it was easier to stay "asleep" and say nothing.  
  
It was only a few minutes that she was in the room, and he loved every one of them. Duo fell asleep to the voice, to those footsteps, to that smile. It's amazing how things that seem so trivial in life become so crucial when it's someone you care so deeply about.  
  
* 10:05 pm *  
  
:: I love no one. I'm a terrorist. I kill people I don't care for them. I'm just here for the trip not the interaction.::  
  
It's amazing that someone as social as Duo Maxwell could be so hateful of all the people that surrounded him. THEY killed his parents. THEY made him an orphan. THEY rejected him and made him seem undesirable. THEY took the only people who ever loved him away. THEY made him a killing machine. And now SHE was making him forget why he had ever been mad. Mad at people like her. How dare she.  
  
* 10:07 pm *  
  
::If I sent her away that man would find her and I'd hafta live with it.::  
  
Otto, Ayame's ex, hadn't been seen or heard from since the night he practically killed her. And no one asked about it. Better to leave bodies in their graves than to dig 'em up and disturb their peace. Duo actually began to believe that Ayame had no idea what happened that night. The gist of it yes but not everything. She was in shock, and it was possible. Could his Aya-chan have forgotten the way he held her so gently when her body screamed out in pain? Shinigami was the only barrier between her and fatality. The only time the god of death had ever cared about sparing another being.  
  
* 10:13 *  
  
:: Two more minutes.::  
  
Now clad in p.j.'s, cow slippers removed, he climbed under the sheets to fall "asleep" before Ayame came in. After sandwiching himself between his fluffy, cozy comforters, he let his head hit the pillow with abandon and lay there waiting.  
  
The digital clock beeped ten-fifteen, in big, red bold letters.  
  
His bedroom door creaked open, as a needle-thin stream of light added color on the curtains of his far window. Seconds later, the light was extinguished with the flick of a switch. The unmistakable silhouette of Ayame entered the room. In a rush, she scurried over to the hamper where his dirty blue jumpsuit was kept, picking it carefully out. She gathered it into her arms, all the time Duo's eyes following her every movement.  
  
"I love you." She whispered quietly, kneeling momentarily at his bedside.  
  
"I love you too Ayame." the dryness of his throat was amazing.  
  
She drew back, a bit startled by the answer. "Sorry for waking you up! I didn't know-!"  
  
"Do you REALLY love me?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Do you really love me?."  
  
Ayame tilted her head in at the question. She rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Duh you asshole!"  
  
"People have told me they loved me before." Duo replied matter-of-factly, like he was the smartest person that ever walked on the globe.  
  
She leaned down and kissed him, smiling. He rubbed his nose against hers gently, loving the tingle of her skin against his.  
  
"Trust me."  
  
"I dunno if I caaaaaaaaan." He said childishly, blinking his purple eyes at her from between the sheets.  
  
.  
  
"I'd never tell a lie." She replied. Duo's nose crunched up as she placed little kisses on it.  
  
::My line!::  
  
"Really? Really?" He eyed her carefully like a fat kid looking over a bar of chocolate.  
  
"Really really!"  
  
"You suuuuuuuuure?"  
  
"Positive!"  
  
Duo popped up, throwing the covers off of his toasty pajama-ed body. He held his arms out to her. "C'meeeeeeeere! Big hug!"  
  
Ayame grinned and threw herself onto him, tackling the braided boy to the bed. There was a fit of giggles, a period of silence and then a few grateful sighs from both. Covers rustled on the bed. Duo pulled her in and spooned her body against his. He pushed kisses along her shoulder enjoying the shivers he felt from Ayame.  
  
"I don't know who could ever imagine hurting you.but I can swear to you it won't happen again."  
  
"Where'd that come from." She laughed a little.  
  
He shrugged. "Dunno.just a random thought."  
  
"Well, heh, you can't promise someone they'll never hurt again."  
  
"I would never tell you something I couldn't do." He smiled onto her skin. "I love you."  
  
"REALLY?" She mocked.  
  
"YOU DOUBT MY LOVE! I'm HURT!" His drama was pathetic and dripping with sarcasm.  
  
Ayame laughed again before comfortably settling into his arms.  
  
He pulled the blanket on to the two of them, smiling to himself.  
  
Ayame would get spend the rest of the night in the arms of her happy thought.  
  
~~  
  
Confusing? Did it suck? You wanna flame me yet? Please tell ^^ * points at comment button * hehe! 


	12. Chapter 11 Stopwatches

~~

SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AYA WRITES A LONG CHAPPIE?! SEE THE HORROR! I HATED THAT CHAPTER! I ABHORE IT! I WOULD RATHER GET WITH WUFEI THAN TO RE-READ THAT PIECE OF SH**!!

Duo: I'm sensing the anger…

Aya: HELL YES!

Duo: *short laugh * you suck!

Aya: *pouts * yeah I do…

Duo: That DOESN'T MEAN WE CAN'T DO THE FREAKY FREAKY LATER!

Aya: WOOHOO! 

~~

Life aint no bowl of cherries

~~

"Aya, it'z five." Duo nudged the female body next to his.

She popped up in a daze. "Whatzzit?" Gingerly, Duo laid a kiss on her forehead. Ayame shook with a yawn and a stretch. "Nononono, let's 'tay in bed just a liddle longer…" her head hit his chest, crushing his lungs lovingly, "liddle bi-"

The sleepy happiness of the couple was shattered with the arrival the angry Chinese man who, indeed, hadn't received his medication.

 "MAXWELL. Get your sorry ass out to the store and get us food for our 'gathering'." He stared at both of them, eye slightly twitching. "Did you-"

Duo grinned. "Have sex? Of course! Didn't you hear us last night?"

"I screamed," Ayame yawned, cutting her sentence off, "sooooo hard. And lemme tell ya when Duo RIDES you he RIDES you. He went in and out so fast my p-"

"ENOUGH! If I wanted details like that I'D WATCH A POROGRAPHIC FILM!"

"You're just a horn dog," Duo replied nonchalantly, rising out of bed, "I'll get your FOOD evil bastard. You're lucky it's my day off…"

"YES I WILL BUILD A SHRINE IN YOUR HONOR UPON YOUR RETURN." And off Wu-Wu went to take a _cold_ shower.

Ayame yawned the climactic yawn. "D'you think he believed us?"

"Sadly, yes."

"Shopping sounds like fun though!" The female resident of the bed nudged Duo in the side. He grumbled. "We could always get some things that AREN'T on the list…like…whipped cream?"

He grinned, aware of the implication, "And chocolate sauce!"

"CHERRIES!"

"CONDOMS!" 

"FLAVORED!"

"THAT'S WHY I LOVE YOU AYAME!"

~~

It only took ten minutes for Duo to braid his hair, this time with his Aya-chan's help. She picked out a sexy pair of black pants and a tight white shirt. 

"I didn't even know I had these clothes!"

"How can you not know what's in your closet?! See its comfy and sexy…really sexy…" the sliding closet door shut. She joined him, admiring his ass in the mirror. 

"Your turn! SHORT SKIRT!" Duo threw his hands up in the air, giddy. 

Ayame fidgeted uncomfortably. "I dun like my legs!" Duo's eyes ran down her body.

"What the hell are you talkin' about? They're fine!"

"Duo…I'm wearing pants…" her fingers pulled at her pajama pants. 

"Fine, I'll allow you to wear pants, but tonight, after the party, they're coming off."

"I can't pass that offer up now can I?" She playfully stuck her bubble gum tongue out at him. In an instant Duo's mouth was locked onto her in a long sweet kiss.

"I don't take teasing well…" his eyebrows went up and down.

"I'll be using that to my advantage…" she replied with an innocent tone.

And yet another annoying disturbance interrupted their kitten foreplay, this time, the carebear.

"Oh Duo! Ayame! Gomen, I don't mean to intrude." Quatre Winner stood, flushed faced, staring at the scene like a thirteen year old who had just stumbled on an issue of playboy. The meek Arabian backed away, slowly to the door.

Ayame pulled out of Duo's arms, leaving the appendages lonely and hanging in mid air.

"You're not intruding! You're so cute!" She hugged the albino Arabian. Violet eyes of vengeance seethed at the poor, frightened boy. "So…what brings you here!" She smiled, planting a kiss on his forehead between his blinding white bangs. 

 Shinigami's eye twitched.

"I brought the grocery list…and the money…" Quatre fished the items from his pocket, handing her a few yellow, crinkly post-its and two hundred dollars, "that should be enough! I'll reimburse you if you need to spend anymore than that."

"Hey, Q, why the hell are people coming over anyway." Duo's glared bared down on the Sandrock pilot who had stolen the attention of his Aya from him. 

Quatre shuffled under the gaze, looking at the ground in meek innocence, "We haven't seen them in a while…since last Christmas Eve, I thought it would be nice t-"

"Yeah, yeah I know, to keep in touch, but do they ever initiate anything…NOOOOOOOO, and that would tell ya they aren't really interested…" Duo rubbed his nose, getting every word out with the sincere disgust he intended. All of them, except for Hilde and Sally, tried their hardest to AVOID the five terroristic/suicidal "gentlemen" ever since the war had ended. It looked bad for the higher-ups in the social scale to be associating with such low-lifes. And Duo Maxwell took pride in his title as one of those low-lifes. He wasn't going to bend for them. Being around THEM made him feel uncomfortable, especially people like…

::Dorothy…::

"Blech!" Duo cringed as eyebrows invaded his thoughts. Ol' double brow was always included…and he could have sworn she was stripping him with her eyes last they had met.

"Duo! They're nice and they graciously accepted the invitation!"

Ayame scratched her brown hair, "It would be nice to meet some of your old friends…"

"Not you too Aya-chan!" Shinigami whined helplessly. Both of them had him backed into a corner. 

"Fine! I'll THINK about it Quat."

"Yay!" the young woman squealed. Quatre looked happy that his efforts proved not to be in vain.

"Hell," Duo scratched the back of his head, "what's a party without me anyway."

~~

Two hours later both were out the door and on their way to a small shopping center blocks away from the house. It was a good walking distance but because Duo was banned from ever touching or getting within five hundred feet of the vehicle he had once trashed, they were forced to make their way on foot. Duo was a good two yards behind his companion. She walked too fast for his liking.

Shinigami was lost in his thoughts, and, like always, ignored everything else that happened outside of his little daydream. 

::Ayame looks cute in those clothes…Hm, I wonder if she'll take well to someone like Relena…How many licks DOES it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop …Licking and sucking of a lollypop do coincide wi -::

"DUO, WATCH OUT!" 

The braided boy narrowly avoided getting splattered on the highway. The red car that had swerved precariously from him stopped a few feet away as the driver stepped out, angrily marching towards Duo.

"WHAT THE FUCK!? ARE YOU STUPID!?"

"Hey buddy calm down. Don't worry about ME I'm FINE even though you almost made me a grease spot on the highway going, probably ninety miles an hour…" Duo glanced over his shoulder to see Ayame the short distance in his direction. Strangely, she stopped, and her eyes went wide.

The young man who had almost made Duo's insides a new hood ornament tore his intense glare from Shinigami over to Ayame. He visibly flinched, his look intensifying on her.

"You know her?…" the question was plain and simple, the tone it was asked in suggested that the reason was not so innocent.

"Yes I do in fact I'm her…" Duo looked for the word that would surely fend him off.

"He's my fiancée…" Ayame finished for him. Duo jumped unaware she had gotten closer, "…Otto."

"Wait…you hurt Aya?…"

Otto's face curled into a smirk, "Technically. But the police didn't think much of it now did they. It seems that they've dropped all the charges. It's nice knowing people in high places…"

"You're a fucking bastard." Duo replied back, as if he was stating a simple fact.

The tall darker haired man shrugged it off, grin widening. "Why don't you just come back with me Ayame and save me all the trouble of finding you and killing you."

Ayame glared back defiantly.

Duo was trying with all his strength to turn down the chance to whip out his gun and blow the guy's balls off. "Let's just get something straight buddy," Duo started, " You touch her…I'll castrate you and make you eat your balls." He grinned. "But if you get back in that car and drive away I'll pretend this never happened…"

"Fine. I'll just wait." Otto took one final glance over Duo's shoulder where Ayame was hiding, "He's gonna dump your ass sooner or later Ayame and when he does I'll find you." He began to back his way up to his car, eyes still locked with hers, "You're just a whore to him like you were just a whore to me, and when you're dead no ones gonna care. No amount of calls to the police or help from friends will save you from what **I'm** going to put you through…" Otto stepped carefully into the car, "Just remember that…"

And with those words he sped off in the opposite direction.

"Ayame, don't listen to that ass…" Duo turned around expecting to see her tearful and frightened. Instead she stood there with the same defiant look as before.

"I'm fine…he's not worth my tears."

A wide grin, seconds later, crossed Duo's face.

"Sooooooo, I'm your fiancée, am I?"

Ayame's face flushed darker than Duo had ever seen.

"It was just to get him to leave me alone…and you alone too! If he knows that I'm with you all the time he won't go looking for me!- Dammit! I'm such an idiot for dragging you into this!" Her deeply shaded face took refuge in her cold, clammy hands, hiding it from Duo's musing grin.

"I just hope I can afford the ring."

"DUO!" Ayame squeaked back, hitting him playfully on the shoulder.

"AND THE WEDDING! AND THEN THERES THE LITTLE DUO'S AND AYA'S TO PROVIDE FOR!" He couldn't help himself from finding mirth in those words.

"You're really an ass you know that!?" Sincerity failed Aya-chan as a smile pinced at the dimples in her cheeks, "But you're the cutest ass I've ever met…"

~~

am I still chuggin along strong? OH THE ENDING ITS SO JUICY! I hope everyone'll appreciate the horribly jokes I make in the next two chapters. It's a happy build up to a long hard fall ^^- !


	13. Chapter 12 Clean up, isle 4

~~ 

Disclaimer: you guys know the drill…but because my lawyer has suggested, I will WRITE THE DISCLAIMER!  I own nuthin' except for the gist of the story. Gundam aint mine.

~~

Aya: that one wasn't SO so bad.

Duo: agreed. I liked how Otto was the guy in the car.

Aya: YEP! It was the only transition I could think of :-/

Duo: so how you gonna work out the end?

Aya: oh. I've written it all *grin * I just need to type it up and reread it

Duo: HAPPY ENDING! YAY!

~~

Life aint no bowl of cherries…

~~

Duo and Ayame entered the food store, the first stop on their agenda, to purchase the immense amount of food listed on the numerous post-its. 

Shinigami quickly made his way over to one of the rickety, old, metal carts and hopped in.

"What are you doing?" Ayame laughed at little at the childish act.

"I'm waiting for a push…" he motioned her over to the cart, "So if you'd be so kind."

His female companion rolled her eyes, the residual smile growing into a grin. With a short laugh she took the pushcart bar in both hands and pushed the carted baka into the nearest isle.

"You know…" Ayame leaned her lips close to Shinigami's ear, "just about everyone we've passed is staring at you."

He shrugged, "Let 'em stare. It's more fun that way! You should see their reactions when you do something really stupid." Duo's braid beamed with pride at the memory of the havoc he had once caused in isle five that got him booted from the store a few months ago. 

Just then he de-carted himself and proceeded over to a large basket of rubber kick balls and took a red one out.

"It's all about timing, Aya, my dear." 

And with that said Ayame watched in horror as he pegged a man with a shopping car and proceeded to yell, "TAG. YOUR IT!" before escaping into another isle around the corner. The middle-aged man, bewildered and pelted, the rubber ball still bouncing there mockingly, gathered himself up and made a hasty escape. 

All the while Duo watched, poking his head over the shelves, trying to contain his laughter. 

"Mahahaha!" 

"Oh God! Duo! Come back here!"

~~

"Duo are you nuts!? Your gonna get us thrown out!"

"No I won't!" Some how or another, Ayame tracked Duo down to the produce area. He had wreaked havoc across the store, planting boxes of condoms into elderly peoples carts, gathering random people to play dodge ball throughout the store, and now he was rigging the timed water sprinklers for the vegetable shelves totally unnoticed. "What people fail to see is the ease at which this can be done…" 

::Hell if I can wire a bomb, I can wire water sprinklers.:: 

Ayame was doing her best not to show her enjoyment of the situation but watching his game of dodge ball had been the funniest thing she'd seen someone do and the idea of having people sprayed in the face with water _was_ tempting. 

"But how are you gonna make them go off when you want them to…"

"That's the easy part!" Duo grinned holding up a small detonation device that looked like it was for self-destruct purposes, "Getting away from security if they catch us, now that's the challenge." 

"You've completely lost it."

"I never had it to begin with!" he pecked her cheek with a kiss, "All I hafta do is press this little button and you know the rest." 

After proclaiming the orange stand as their military base, they both waited to claim their first casualty. It was hard to find anyone to begin with. The fact that it was a workday and the produce section of the store seemed to be unpopular didn't help any. 

Finally an unwary victim.

"OH OH!" Ayame tugged at duo and pointed inconspicuously, "See the girl with the long black hair?"

He nodded and squinted in her general direction. "Just a little more c'mon…that's right…to the left…a tiny bit."

The young woman, about Duo's age, maybe a bit younger, was Chinese, her glossy, ebony hair hung down to her back. What freaked him out was she looked EXACTLY how Wufei would if he were woman.

::More incentive. MAHAHAHA::

 He pressed the button hard and watched as the stranger gave a short squeal and drop the eggplant she was examining, cussing loud enough for isles one and two to hear.

"SHIT. GODDAMIT!" 

"Tehehehehe. She got so soaked." 

Ayame coulda sworn she saw a pair of devilish horns emerge from under his braid. 

"I hope you've had your fun, Maxwell." There was a tone in her voice that suggested she was cross.

"Awwwww, Ayame is mad at me?" He pouted and unleashed the best set of watery puppy eyes he could. 

"That's right!" She crossed her arms and looked away from him trying her best to look it. "I dun want Quatre to be angry! He expects us to be shopping."

"He expects YOU to be shopping. He knows I'LL be terrorizing the place."

"High expectations, ne?"

"Like you wouldn't BELIEVE." He replied, violet eyes rolled up to the ceiling in sarcasm. "But since I'm sucha nice guy, I'll help ya out at the expense of my fun…" Duo snatched the lists from her.

"I already checked off some of the stuff…"

"Apricots…what the hell are apricots…" Duo scanned his minute amount of knowledge on nutritional food. This was coming up as unavailable. 

Ayame squinted one of her hazel eyes in thought. "They're like…dried up pieces of fruit. I heard they're good…"  

~~

Duo stared into the Plexiglas-topped containers where the alleged apricots lay. 

"…"

Ayame glances over at the braided idiot as she put a twisty tie around the one-pound bag of dried fruities she has scooped.

"What's wrong-?"

Shinigami shoved two pieces of apricots in her face with a serious look.

"What's the first thing that pops into your mind when you look at these." He gave her an analytical look as if he were a psychiatrist giving his patient an inkblot test.

"Er…ah…shriveled up fruit?"

"Old people's balls…" He said in the most seriously ominous tone she had ever heard come from him.

"….old people's balls…and…you know what they look like?" Ayame bit her cheery lips back, forcing them to withhold a huge grin.

"No…but I think this is how they would look…" He gave a small, sad nod.

"You have lost all the sympathy I've ever had for you when Heero and the others called you an idiot…"

"AND WHAT ABOUT THIS! What comes to mind?" He unceremoniously plucked a large cucumber from the cart, stroking it suggestively.

Ayame felting the temperature rise in her face. She looked straight into Duo's eyes and motioned with them down to his lower…lower stomach area.

"GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER YOUNG LADY! It's a vegetable!" Shinigami grinned after receiving a blow to the head with a cereal box.

~~

"Okay…" Ayame's eyes ran down her list once more to check for accuracy, "we got everything!" She beamed.

"Yeah and it only took two hours!" Duo was busy steering the cart into one of the checkout lines. With one good push off with his foot, he rode the rickety piece of metal into a magazine rack.

"You're way too smooth for your own good Duo." Aya-chan bent over on her knees and aided him in the clean up efforts, nudging him a little.

The young American glanced over at her and returned the loving bump, "Anything to get you to smile."

A tint of pink crossed her face. "You're so sweet." She countered back quietly, stacking up the last of the books.

"Sweet enough for you to let me get the cherry flavored condoms I found?!" 

"…put 'em in the cart, Quatre will never know."

~~

Aya: I'M TRYING BUT I'M NOT FUNNY! !

Duo: Poor, poor girl.


	14. Chapter 13 Pass the bottle

Ahem * I am berry pleased with the reviews I got * grin * I hope you'll all like this story till the end. It's hard to write and.well. LIKE what I'm writing. Ta me everything is really corny and hackneyed, like the last section. That was SO far from funny for me. But when I let my proofreader, Maiku, go over it he liked it a lot and told me not to change anything @@. So naturally I listen to him ^^. Better judgment has he!  
  
P.S. Just a quick note. There is no real life reference in this story. I've never been abused or anything. Sorry I didn't mean to make the descriptions too intense like in the angst chapters. I'm only saying this cause one of my friend read part of the story and asked how I came up with some of the gory descriptions. Don't worry they're all from my head ^^- There is a little truth in every bit of writing, but not in that. Hehehe.  
  
~~  
  
Duo: * stomach growls * hmmm. It speaks.  
  
Aya: *hands Duo carton of ice cream * eat. Chubby Duo is a happy Duo.  
  
Duo: SCORE! CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH!  
  
~~  
  
Life aint no bowl of cherries.  
  
~~  
  
"Ne, Duo. open the door." Ayame was being consumed by a heap of heavy, brown paper grocery bags as she watched the long brown braid in front of her pendulum pensively.  
  
"Where DID I put the key.maybe I forgot it." Duo scratched his head.  
  
"My arrrrrrrms.DUO." The strained words came out.  
  
"Back pockets.nope."  
  
"Errr." a shaky growl came from the back of her throat as Ayame pushed her toes under the door mat and flipped it up revealing the item Duo was searching for.  
  
Grinning, he bent down and picked up the dirt-dusted key, "HEY! There it is! Nice job Aya-chan.uh.Aya-chan? ." Duo glanced over his shoulder nervously only to find two feet sticking out from under a mound of bags, "you coulda asked for help ya know.heh.heh."  
  
~~  
  
"Thankyou so much." Quatre seemed more than pleased to worship the ground both Ayame and Duo walked on after they had bought home what he had asked for. Everyone else was in shock that the braided American came home with groceries, unlike last time when he bought back a box of half-eaten fudgie ding-a-lings instead of "nourishing provisions" as Heero put it.  
  
"It's no problem Quatre-chan!" Ayame's grin resembled more of Duo's each time, "And.twenty dollars change too." Quatre pocketed the crinkled bill handed to him.  
  
Duo made off to the kitchen where he unceremoniously tore through ten of the fifteen bags in search for his "cherry flavored condiments" that he accidentally bagged in the mad rush to shove every food item into the least amount of paper bags manageable.  
  
"Where.where.where.HERE! HAHA!" With a few shifty glances around the empty kitchen area, he pocketed the box and made off with it.  
  
"At least this is one thing to look forward too. Stupid party. Can't we all just go to a bar and get drunk like EVERYONE else? Underage shmundgerage."  
  
"What are you babbling about now, Maxwell? No matter how much complaining you have about the party, Quatre expects you to be there." Heero was leaning on the doorframe between the hallway and his room just in earshot of Duo's stream of complaints. But then again the whole house was in earshot of Duo's voice.  
  
The Demon merely grinned, "Tell me, is that position really comfortable cause I've leaned on many walls in my time and I haven't found it very soothing on the spine."  
  
"Hn.lets just say it's more comfortable than listening to your drivel."  
  
"That hurts Heero, that really does." Duo smacked a closed fist on his chest and dramatically sniffled and proceeded to wipe invisible tears from under his eyes. The Japanese pilot could only scoff and roll his eyes. "We're like BROTHERS-!"  
  
"Don't even joke like that if I was ever related to you in ANY way I would promptly put a bullet through my head." Came the monotoned reply.  
  
"AWWWWWWW HEE-CHAN!" Shinigami slung an arm around the annoyed neck, "Deep down I know you love me-!"  
  
"What's this." Heero's hand plucked with ease the box from Duo's pocket he so hoped to conceal from everyone else. Prussian blue eyes ran over each line of print, as a smirk grew wider and wider.  
  
"HEY!" Duo made a full-bodied lunge towards the box only to be greeted with a mouth full of floor rug.  
  
Heero stepped on the end of the chestnut braid, effectively keeping poor Duo pinned down. "Planning something special with Ayame tonight? Hn. Maybe that's why you're reluctant to come to the party, ne?" his voice mused.  
  
Duo was out of breath, still trying to free himself from the hold the instep of the socked foot had on his beloved hair. "HEY! NONE OF YOUR BUISNESS!"  
  
"If you're going to be keeping me up all night I believe it is." he tossed the box haphazardly onto the laid out pilot and released him from the foothold.  
  
~~  
  
Slowly but surely, guests began to arrive t o the boys' abode.  
  
First, of course, came Relena Peacecraft. Know to be the Queen of punctuality. She promptly attached herself to the ever-silent Heero, who tried his to shake her off with the best set of tactics he could.  
  
Hilde and Sally arrived together. Two people Duo wouldn't mind chatting with for a little.  
  
A few minutes after, Dorothy.  
  
::If I cling to Ayame, she'll think I got married and leave me alone.::  
  
"MAXWELL!"  
  
Duo jumped out of his skin. "What the hell do you want Wufei?! GEZZUS I'M TWO FRIGGEN FEET INFRONT OF YOU!!!"  
  
"Please control your mouth. I would like to introduce to you the only living relative I have left, my sister, Rei." Wufei's hands glided gracefully in the air directing the American's vision to his side where, strangely, no one stood.  
  
"Er.ah.Wu, either she kicked the bucket at the doorstep or you've been cross dressing so often you're beginning to believe that's your sister lookin' back at you in the mirror."  
  
"What are y-." The empty spot seemed to flash 'Duh asshole' at him repeatedly, "REI WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!" His cold black eyes scanned the room for a few seconds, then widened, leading him to a young girl, about Duo's age, maybe a bit younger with long ebony hair down her back, who DID resemble Wufei a lot, and for good reasons.  
  
"Here, Maxwell, is my younger sibling."  
  
"Yo!" The young woman replied between chews on a cheese cracker.  
  
"Hey, have we met before?" Duo squinted at her.  
  
"People say that about me all the time." Rei grinned dumbly.  
  
::Thank GOD she's not like her stick-up-the-ass brother.::  
  
Wufei shook his head in shame and mumbled something about "weak women" before retreating to a group of other guests.  
  
"Duo!" Ayame trotted up happily and pecked his cheek, "er.ah.." Aya waved nervously at the dark haired girl "h-hi!". Shinigami blinked. "Can I talk to you, Duo-chan?"  
  
"Sure! I'll be right back." he assured Rei who merely shrugged and returned to her eating fest.  
  
"Do you KNOW who that is, baka!"  
  
"Yeah, Wufei's kid sister, she ain't half bad looking either."  
  
"Think.Water Sprinklers.Super market."  
  
Shinigami flicked his eyes over to the food table and suddenly the mental enigma pieced itself together. "OH! THAT'S THE DORK WE SOAKED!"  
  
Ayame let out mischievous smile, "Yup, yup! Small world ne?"  
  
"Should we mention it?"  
  
"Maybe later."  
  
Duo let those words stir. Later entailed many things for him on this particular day. Yummy later number one was what he planned with Aya-chan.  
  
::Better not think of that too much. Pants are tight and people aren't here to see Maxwell tower being * ahem * erected.::  
  
"Oh! Cheese doodles!" And with those soul-stirring words, the demonic one flocked over to the food table, accompanying Rei-san.  
  
Rei-Rei picked at the food, Duo noted, her vivid facial expressions somewhat disturbing.  
"Ew!" She squealed, poking her red-painted fingernail at the shriveled up apricot, "what the hell is that!?"  
  
Shinigami's violet eyes glared evilly at the bowl.  
  
"Old people's balls."  
  
~~  
  
Duo barely noticed the arrival of another few guests. Zechs and Noin, who arrived late because of a previous engagement, eagerly drank themselves silly as soon as they set foot through the door.  
  
::Heh.looks like a good idea.::  
  
"Aye, Quat! You think we could play a little game?" Shinigami asked in all innocence.  
  
The small blonde retorted with a lopsided smile, "Sure why not. I think many of the guests are getting bored."  
  
Duo corralled the mob of people over into a circle around a table with twelve empty shot glasses on it. Confused but intrigued, everyone took a seat.  
  
"What's up Duo?" Hilde plopped down on the couch to the left of him.  
  
"Just a game of 'I've never'. Er.ah.anyone ever play before?"  
  
The consensus came as no. What more could he have expected from a bunch of sheltered people. Heero and Trowa, of course, knew how to play. They drank as much as he did.  
  
"Okay, well, the object of the game is to stay sober enough to continue. If you black out or get nauseous and hafta run to the bathroom to hurl, you lose. One person'll say something they've never done before and if you've done it " he picked up a shot glass, "You drink! Simple ne?"  
  
After a few uneasy murmurs from the light drinkers of the group, Duo tossed the extra blue tinted shot glass to the monotone Japanese across from him.  
  
"You start Heero."  
  
"Hn."  
  
~~  
  
Heero to Relena to Quatre to Dorothy.  
  
Duo slammed down a shot during every one of their turns. The statements started out broad, but as the game would progress, the drunker they would get, the funnier it would get.  
  
The glass was passed on to Ayame. She sat there fingering it before she looked up with a smile.  
  
"I've never had sex before."  
  
Everyone, with the exception of Ayame .and Duo.reached for a glass and took a drink. By the looks on their faces and the general direction they were staring in, they expected the braided baka to take down a few dozen shots.  
  
"Here." Hilde shoved a shot glass at him, "I poured one for you."  
  
"I dun needa drink."  
  
Trowa choked on the drink, pinching his nose to keep the liquid from coming out. Wufei almost dropped the small glass that was touching his lips. Even Quatre, who was still shyly holding a drink, stopped and went paler than any Arabian Duo had ever seen.  
  
Ayame blinked at him.  
  
"Duo..Maxwell.you're a.Virgin?!" Dorothy's eye twitched, mind trying to process what her mouth had said.  
  
"Put it that way and it makes me sound like I have a disease. So I haven't gotten around to getting laid yet. You all HAVE?"  
  
Uneasy glances were cast from one person to another.  
  
Relena blushed hard glancing over into Heero's cold prussian looked with embarrassment at his feet. Quatre meekly looked to the double brow woman seated next to him. Hilde's eyes flicked at Trowa. Through Wufei's hard look broke a tinge of embarrassment at Sally's wide grin.  
  
Rei-chan crossed her arms and sat up proudly "I'M MARRIED! I HAVE GOOD A GOOD REASON FOR NOT BEING A VIRGIN!"  
  
Her brother grumbled. "Damn that Kake." He received a sharp blow on his head with a shot glass.  
  
"How dare you talk badly of your sister's husband!"  
  
Quatre snapped like the little rubber band he was. ".THE ONLY REASON I DID ANYTHING WITH DOROTHY WAS BECAUSE I WAS TRYING TO COMPETE WITH YOU, DUO!"  
  
".Wow.I'm flattered!" He grinned back at Quatre.  
  
Wufei grimaced. "So all those times you came home the morning after a date.you did nothing?"  
  
"Scouts honor!"  
  
"Let's just keep playing then." The wing pilot looked as if he was having a hernia, then again so were the rest of the guests who sat around the table, each glance back to one specific person and then murmuring something under their breaths, while blushing feverishly.  
  
~~  
  
Uh.stupid? Boring? Yeah .I tried.DARN IT! 


	15. Chapter 14 Happy mushy gush

All will be explained in this chapter! * clouds open up and light shines down * No, seriously ^^;; all the kwazy mixed up stuff will become clear.  
  
About Duo's job.I do kinda include that but as you can see I skip un-needed detail. Some of the chapters just tie up a bunch of days while like 3 or 4 chappies harp on 1 day. What can I say. The story is all about Duo and relationships and all *big shrug * chapters 1-9 only span 2 days, where as chapter 10 sums up a time span of "Thirty-five days, twenty-two hours and fourty-five seconds" but also talks specifically of one day. Chapter 11-13 are the Friday of the party (morning, afternoon, night).  
  
I'm not one for wordiness. Which is a bad thing. This is my first story too. I know its pretty bad. T~~~~T but I'll try harder cause the readers deserve it!  
  
And I really cant write long chapters it gives me a meh feeling in the stomach @@.  
  
This chapter is still the Friday of the party, late at nite as you can tell.  
  
Ps. Ayame and Duo did not DOOOOO anything yet. The time when they were talking with Wufei was pretty much supposed to be taken as a joke o_o sorry for any confusion. ~~  
  
Life aint no bowl of cherries.  
  
~~  
  
The smell of beer hung heavily on everyone's breaths even an hour after the game had ended. Quatre was the first to give in and pass out on Dorothy who, surprisingly, accommodated his head to her lap. The game really came to a close when Relena vomited all over the table, forcing the only four sober people (Duo, Heero, Ayame, and Rei) to clean up the before the stench stuck to the whole room.  
  
"Maxwell, I'm taking her to my room." Still cold faced and monotoned, the Japanese boy cradled the unconscious Relena in his arms.  
  
Duo gave a quirky "I so know what you're gonna do when she wakes up" grin.  
  
"HAVE FUN HEERO!"  
  
"Yeah right."  
  
Ayame rubbed her eyes with her hand, holding out a roll of paper towels in the other. "Bought more in."  
  
Duo extended his hand to accept the roll, but another young woman quickly intercepted it. He looked up and was greeted with Hilde's smiling eyes.  
  
"I'll take care of it." She leaned down closer to him, "Sally wants to have a word with you anyway."  
  
Duo's nose crinkled up. "Isn't she still 'honoring the porcelain god'?"  
  
"She stopped hurling a WHILE ago Duo. She's sober now, so what're you waiting for baka?!"  
  
"I'm goin'!"  
  
~~  
  
"Sally, you in here?" Shinigami pattered the open bathroom door lightly with his fist, for politeness sake.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine dun worry."  
  
Strangely the bathroom smelled nothing like puke.  
  
Duo gave a puzzled look as he pushed the door open, "Weren't youuuuuu."  
  
"Puking? No I just hadda use the bathroom really bad and after watching all of them drop like flies out there I decided to sit it out." Miss Po smiled up at him from her seat on the sink.  
  
"Heh.you wanted to talk to me?" Duo blinked.  
  
Sally tapped her fingers on the sink top and bit her lip. "Oh yeah! I just wanted to give you a bit of helpful information.about.well.since I know you haven't.I mean you didn't.go through it with Ayame yet, which was to say, to everyone's surprise."  
  
He scratched the back of his braid, "Yeah, I was just afraid, I would hurt her ya know?"  
  
"Heero told me you two sleep in the same room." She smirked accusingly.  
  
"Doesn't mean I screw her brains out!" Duo shot an offended glare, "I respect her a lot. She's the only woman that can deal with me!"  
  
"I didn't mean to offend ya Duo, you know that. I just wanted to tell you that it WOULD be alright to." Sally blushed. "I mean she's fine and all, to clear up any doubt in your mind.'  
  
"I gottcha."  
  
::Duo Maxwell you're getting' LUCKY TONITE!::  
  
"But there's another thing."  
  
::DAMMIT!::  
  
"Ayame is all healed up but there isn't any guarantee she can feel anything."  
  
"Wait, whaddya mean.that guy raped her so hard-."  
  
"Didn't you listen, she's never had sex. And it's true. After I checked her wounds I found that whoever had tortured her never DID anything more with her or should I say, never got around to DOING anything more?"  
  
".whoa.you can tell if someone's a virgin or not?"  
  
Her young lips screwed up into a lopsided smile of partial embarrasment. "Yes."  
  
"But.what's weird is.Ayame's been with that guy long before this an' all.wait, what EXACTLY do you mean by 'she can't feel anything'?"  
  
"It speaks for itself! She may not be able to FEEL anything as in, stimulation? GODDAMIT! YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN MAXWELL!" Sally's eyes looked upset as she swallowed back the huge lump in her throat.  
  
"But-."  
  
"Her sense of touch might have been numbed, hell with all the damage that was done, I'm surprised she can still perform certain bodily functions."  
  
"Fuck! I dun needa hear this! NOT NOW! NOT RIGHT BEFORE." Her cool, black eyes blinked at him as Duo froze mid-sentence, "WHATEVER! I'm done talking here!" He slammed the door, angry with Sally for randomly choosing NOW to surprise him with this beautiful news.  
  
"She had to try to fuckin' sugar coat it for me. Damn that sympathetic tone." Blinded with rage, he barely realized smacking shoulders with his Aya-chan while stomping down the hallway.  
  
"Oh! Duo! Hilde an' Rei are still in there. I dun think they need much help. They told me to go to bed. Well, I can't complain I really dun wanna clean up vomit." Ayame smiled at him, but it quickly faded when she noticed the cross look on her love's face. "Is there something wrong?"  
  
"No.not at all." He forced a grin across his face and before any questions could be asked, he scooped her hand into his and tugged a little. "You're tired ne? Let's go to bed then."  
  
~~  
  
Duo yanked open his pajama draw while Ayame lay sprawled out on the comforter of the bed.  
  
"Why do you need THOSE. It's only more to take off Duo-chan." She purred lightly between barely open lips.  
  
The baseball bat of guilt smacked him hard in the gut. "A-Aya. I'm kinda tired.not tonight."  
  
"What!? Not tonight!? But it's the FIRST night! It's not like we've done this SO many times before, then I could understand the reluctance!" While she spoke she pulled her shirt off over her head.  
  
::Oh .skin.more.::  
  
Duo's insides squirmed. "Mind if I ask you a quiestion ::I will soon regret for asking.::?"  
  
"Shoot." Ayame grinned, wiggling her sock free toes.  
  
"Why.didn't that guy ever.rape you.?"  
  
"You mean Otto?" from the way she spoke, it sounded like it happened to a friend of a friend of hers. "He's a bit.screwed up."  
  
"More than a bit." Duo blurted out.  
  
"Well, you gotta know him personally. The first time I met him he was a gentleman. You remind me of him a lot.of the way he use to be." Shinigami could have sworn that his intestines had wrapped themselves around his esophagus.  
  
"But that's a compliment! You're a wonderful person and so was he! But he changed. I dun remember when.or how.but Goddamn did he change. I remember one day when I was at work.I use to work for him, you've probably heard from Hilde.Well, I was on lunch break and he came up to me and for no reason at all slammed me up against a soda machine and popped me in the head with a wrench. If it hadn't been for the other people there he would have beat me to death, I'm sure of that. That wasn't the end of it though.  
  
I felt so bad after that day, I thought it was my fault.that I really did something wrong to him, so I went back to meet him before work at his house. Otto took me inside and locked me in his room. You can imagine I screamed my throat raw the whole time he was dragging me and pounded on the bedroom door until my fists bled. I felt so tired I just gave up after a few hours. Later that night he came home and easily took advantage of me. But he never raped me. He pulled off my clothes and cut me apart with scizzors, pieces of broken glass or mirror, anything that he found interesting at the moment, but never forced sex. I was there for, I dunno how many weeks. I was so tired. Everything always smelled like blood and I could rarely move to get off the bed to feed myself. I just wanted to die or to have him rape me and get over with whatever he wanted. Finally, I snapped or came as close to it as I could. He was starting his ritualistic sport, same as any other day but this time I looked up at him as he was starting to cut me and started screaming and yelling and asking him just to fuck me and leave me to die. It was scary how quiet he got. He grabbed my face to stop me or shut me up. He told me I wasn't worth the effort. That if he was going to fuck someone they'd be significant. I think it was more fulfilling for him to torture and defile a virgin than to do it to someone like a prostitute who prolly had it done countless times before.I'm almost positive.that was it. He was a sick bastard.forcing me to watch his friends rape the girls they'd pick up off the streets. I felt so horribly for them, I mean I could sympathize ya know.and I HAD to watch. I would rather him call me a slut for that then to have my eyes torn out like he promised if I didn't watch."  
  
Duo stood their, for once in his life lost for words. What the hell could comfort someone who wasn't just plain out molested but messed with mentally.  
  
Ayame wiggled her toes, burrowing them under the blanket "But I don't feel bad anymore. I have you. You don't realize how easily you make people forget their problems with one smile.SO get the HELL OVER HERE AND GET BUSY!" She threw herself back on the bed dramatically; sprawled out, ready to be pounced upon.  
  
"I can't AYA, Sally sai-."  
  
"I heard what she said and what you said and I KNOW myself better than any DOCTOR." Grin. "And right now, inner Ayame is waiting for a good time with her wittle Duo-puppy."  
  
"Duo-puppy?! How much did you have to drink young lady?" he licked his lips seductively, dropping the pair of pajama's he held and instead pulling off his shirt.  
  
Ayame pulled her bottom lip into her mouth, wetting it delicately. "Out of all the times you've seen me totally nude I have yet to see you in full birthday suit attire. I think I should be allowed to give you a pet name as payback."  
  
To the best of his abilities, Duo slowly pulled off his remaining garments like a bar stripper. Ayame rolled around on the bed laughing her ass off at the facial expressions and overly acted body movements.  
  
::Oh what I wouldn't do for some pole dancing skills and a .pole right now.::  
  
Shinigami tired his best to look angry at the jerky laughs that came from his audience, but he couldn't simply resist the urge to laugh also. "Oh, so my stripping skills aren't up to par for ya are they?"  
  
"N-no its no-ot that its ju-" another set of laughs burst out halfway into the sentence, "D-did you need to twirl your boxers?!" she mocked him, twirling her finger in the air.  
  
"Yes I did!" Duo pouted.  
  
Ayame, afraid she did hurt his feelings said, "It was sexy, reow! I loved it. I'd ask for an encore but I really AM enjoying the view."  
  
"This is like a really bad sex novel Aya!"  
  
::and I'd be damned if I said I wasn't enjoying all of it.:  
  
" 'Yes it is.' She replied raking her eyes over his BARE, EXPOSED BODY!"  
  
Duo flung himself onto the bed, rolled over and pinned his partner beneath him. A few hand movements and twisting and his Aya-chan was in just as much clothing as Duo Maxwell was. Shinigami had already gone to work nibbling and kissing his way down her neck leaving a few little red marks in this path before finding a new untouched patch of skin to tease with his tongue and lips.  
  
The bed merely shivered with the small movements.  
  
"How'm I doin so far." Duo stopped, panting a little.  
  
"MY TURN!" Ayame over powered him, swapping positions with him.  
  
Ayame went to work, using her tongue as the weapon. Favoring the taste of his chest, she teased and prodded wherever possible.  
  
"Bark!" Aya sat up, commanding him.  
  
"Hell no! No woman is allowed to go all dominatrix on Shinigami."  
  
"Ohhhhh proudly little Duo-puppy won't bark?" her hand ran down his chest going slowly lower.  
  
The bed now shook as the occupant on the lower level let out a deep- throated moan.  
  
"Woof.AH DAMMIT! WOOF WOOF BARK!!"  
  
Ayame ran her fingers through his bangs. "Good boy."  
  
He smirked up at her. "Now watch me roll over."  
  
The bed squeaked and jerked a little.  
  
Silky brown locks freed from his braid hung down onto the body below him.  
  
"You better tell me at all if this hurts, Aya."  
  
"Of course, how could I lie to you?"  
  
::You dunno how much I'm loving this do ya, Ayame. You're so soft and sweet. The smells, the taste, the touch.I want it all.I want you no matter what may come.::  
  
~~ 


	16. Chapter 15 Sentimental

@@…

Disclaimer: How much I own= -0

~~

Life aint no bowl of cherries.

~~

Four hours had passed since the pair had entered their bedroom…

~~

"Duo! You're too rough!"

"You told me to go harder…urrr…I'm only doing what you asked."

"But…not…this much! Ah!" 

Ayame, wrapped in a sheet and seated on the floor of Duo Maxwell's bedroom, stared at the TV screen that flashed "game over" repeatedly. 

"You kicked my ass again…"

Duo was up on his feet, only clad in boxers, doing a victory dance.

"I wooooooooooon! Agaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiin! That's five games, you've looooooooost!"

Shinigami ducked under the flying pillow that was thrown at him.

"Dork! Si'down! I'll kick your ass this time." She took the controller into her hands, eyes locked intensely on the little flash fighting characters dressed in clothes you KNOW they couldn't fight in without falling out of.

Aya grinned, still focused. "Hehe…I love video games."

Duo's dark eyes flicked over to digital clock that flashed read three. "Fun after sex activity, huh?"

::I will reminisce about the sight of having Ayame under me, screaming about how hard my d-::

"OH OH! I can think of a few other things to dooooooo!"

"Liiiiiiiiiike?" Duo rummaged through a drawer he remembered storing some junk food in.

~~

The bathroom mirrors were fogged up badly. Fuzzy foam overflowed from the bathtub. A mountain of soggy brown hair and bubbles came up slightly above the froth. Kneeling behind the porcelain tub, Aya-chan christened the peak of brown matted hair with a yellow rubber ducky, giving it a short squeak through her giggle fit.

"I'm still trying to figure out why I let you do this to me, Aya."

"CAUSE YOU LOOOOOOOOOVE ME SO MUCH!"

"……No that wasn't it."

"Hey!"

"I jest."

Ayame sculpted Duo's hair into a point and watched it sag down weakly. 

"I bet your parents loved their cute little Duo-."

"I… didn't know my parents," Shinigami sloshed the water around with uneasy movements, "I was an orphan, heh, guess they didn't really want me…"

Ayame gawked at him. Who WOULDN'T want her cute little Duo-puppy as a son! "Take that back before I make you EAT THIS SOAP!!!"

"Why?"

Ayame stared at Duo, who looked back in dead seriousness, sure of the accuracy of his last statement. The soft brown eyes of his bathroom buddy frowned. 

"You really think they didn't want you?…" Aya's face softened.

"It's not that I THINK that. I mean I know they died during a war and all but sometimes I gotta wonder how much I really did mean to them."

"Probably a lot, you idiot!"

"Alotta people have died cause of me…"

"Like who?"

"Family …friend…some people who were LIKE family…"

"Sister Helen and Father Maxwell?"

Duo nodded, "Yeah…wha…how did you –?"

"Find out about them? Heh…you're not good at hiding things Duo-puppy. I found a little black bible on the end table next to the bed…A birthday present from them?"

"Heh…yeah. They always wanted me to be apart of the clergy an' all. Father Maxwell said I woulda been a good minister…" 

She grinned at him, "Well… the evil, self-serving Ayame is really glad you're not a priest…"  

 There was momentary silence between the two. The bathroom walls echoed the sloshing of water.

"I look at it like this, if they all didn't die, I wouldn't be the Shinigami you know today." Duo beamed up at her from his bubbly cocoon. 

"Yeah well that's the **only** thing good that's come from losing them," Arms stretched out, she held a corner of a blue towel in each hand waiting for him to exit his bath, "whether you know it or not, you're stronger than the rest of those guys…"

"Wait, you're being random again Ayame, STICK WITH A TOPIC!" He popped out of his warm-watered bed. 

"Them! I mean the pilots!"

"And how did this thought come about?"

"Well…they've all lost their parents too…I know that…some of them you can just tell, like Heero and Trowa…"

"We are all orphans technically…'cept Quatre. He has like forty billion freakin' sisters…" 

"But out of all of them you're the only one who's like this…" Ayame wrapped the towel around his waist slowly, putting him into a hug and resting her head on his chest.

"Like what…" Duo sounded a bit cynical.

"Like…this!"

"I dunno what makes that little head of yours think these things but how the hell…why the hell did you say that…I mean the whole 'You're so much stronger…' shit?"

"Just the way you are. In here…" She poked his chest with her nose right at where his heart resided.

Duo sighed. He could only be happy hearing that from her. "You're so sentimental, Aya."

"Coming from the man who's named himself after someone he considered a father…"(1) her lips twisted into a smirk.

"You're such a bitch."

~~

1) duo named himself after father Maxwell hehehe.


	17. Chapter 16 Begining of the End

I'm sorry I'm not quick with the update-ness but I've been working on finding college scholarship stuff cause financial aid is NEEDED! @_@! Oh so poooooor. I'm trying to become an illustrator. That would ROCK MY SOCKS IN A PURPLE BOX! Wish me luck (unless you want me dead).

Now that I'm ACTUALLY writing the last of 2 or 3 chappies I want you all to know that I LOVE YOU for giving me reviews and I wanna read soma your stuff so send me links to your ficcies and I will post reviews 

~~

Disclaimer: Nothing: adj. … Ex.: Aya does not own Gundam Wing or anything that applies to it.

~~

Life aint no bowl of cherries

~~

Act 1

~~

                                          Duo's Point of view:

            I didn't mean for this to happen. Maybe if I were more like Heero Yuy, the epitome of perfection (heh yeah right…) I woulda seen this coming a mile away. Dammit, I'm getting' ahead of myself again. What can I say, I like to talk. Well, not about this. No…this particular subject I like to shove out of my mind…rather think of better times. 

          It happened around a month ago. It's strange how it all started out. Wufei's reject-of-a-sibling, Rei, gave me a call. Well okay she was calling Wu really but I got into an interesting conversation with the nutcase anyway. She said some stuff that I blew off at the time, about Ayame and myself, like how I should look out for her more carefully, (apparently word travels fast and Hilde's big mouth didn't help any; everyone already knew what happened to my poor Aya-chan…). 

        Who knew all that shit would come back and bite me in the ass in the end. Goddamn her for jinxing me. I really should talk more seriously about this all, but hell, this is as serious as I can get. No joke. And rolling your eyes at me won't make it any BETTER, Thankyou. Lets jut get this damn thing over with already…

                                          End dialogue.

~~

Time: One week before Christmas.

~~

"Look I could give less than a fly fuck about a car that needs a paint job, Hilde…"

An anxious and very spiffy looking Duo Maxwell replied to the listener on the other side of the phone. Ayame stood beside him, dressed in a very classy, oh-so-timeless, black dress, smile slowly fading. 

The pair had decided to go out for a little pre-Christmas celebration at the Peacecraft estate. Duo carefully thought through his decision to accept the invite.

::Good food. Good drinks. Good party!::

And good company to boot. Ayame would be his guest, as it said on the invite to bring one if desired, the first time the coupling would have a nice night out together. Like an early present without a price. Duo couldn't ball room dance for his life but it would be nice to learn with an understanding soul as his partner.

"Look Hilde I-….**_How_** much?…" He gave a long sigh as Ayame reassured him with grin.

"Okay …I'll be over…IN A FEW MINUTES GODDAMNIT!" in one angry burst of energy Shinigami slammed the phone into its bed.

"I know you need the money, Duo," Ayame smiled at him, proof she wasn't at cross with his decision to take the job over their night out, "I'LL JUST SIT HERE! ALL ALONE!" She added to her self-patronizing with a lonely sigh.

"I could always call her back…"

"I'M just kidding you know that. OH! I could come with you!"

The young man gave it a bit of thought, "Hell why not Hilde won't care."

~~

Both were in a mad rush to undress from the fancy enigmas they wore. Ayame's had to be untied and lifted over her head. 

And the hell with Duo's. After an angry battle with the little cufflinks on the ends of his sleeves he tossed the whole outfit, suit jacket and all into the corner of his room, swearing to burn it the minute he got back.

"I feel so free!!!!!" Ayame watched her male counterpart prance around the room in boxers, arms flailing around.

"No time to feel …free! Get dressed, you lunatic!"

Duo gave his best pout. "You're gonna yell at me?" his purple eyes wobbled a little.

"Wait …let me think about it…yes." 

He grinned at her mischievously. 

Ayame knew that look. Oh she knew it all too well. "NO. WAY. Don't give me that look nooooooooow." Whimpering helplessly. 

"I loooooooove you…soooooooo much…"

"Too much…"

"I'm horny."

"Get your damn clothes on, Duo."

~~

The black, run-into-the-ground jeep that Duo had no choice but to drive, "cruised", if you call cruising barely making it up to thirty miles per hour without over heating, towards the tune up shop of the very desperate Hilde Schbiker. 

"Okay, Aya answer me this. Why is it that every Goddamn person wants a paint job or a tune up right before the holidays…" 

"I totally agree that you are being taken advantage of in many ways…Hilde knows you're on vacation but since you're SUCH a reliable worker..."

"If only she gave me as much credit as you."

Traffic was at a minimum. The roads were icy and barely drivable. Ayame counted the cars that went past to ease her worry of their own vehicle.

One. Two.

A blue cheap looking car clunked by.

 And a very nice well kempt red car. For some reason a set of chills ran through her as she watched it coast past at a controlled speed. 

Duo slowed the jeep down and carefully put it in park right beside the curb.

"We have arrived my dear Aya-chan!"

"Huh? Oh good!"

~~

Two hours and thirty-seven minutes was all that it took for the God of death to complete his mission. 

::DAMN I LOVE BEING ME!::

"Okay so…we were talking big paycheck over the phone…can I get an advance on that?"

The car was a done deal. Painted. Checked. _And_ tuned up. Proud of his work? Of course he was. Being the best, or at least talking like one, was a Maxwell special. 

"Sure why not…" Hilde Schbiker had no choice but to concede defeat to that loveable grin, "I owe you a hell'uvalot for just coming in."

"Nah. Just rack up another good deed for Saint Maxwell…"

Ayame heard his last line loud and clear replying with a "That'll be the day…" that rang through the garage.

Duo gave a lopsided smile in her general direction.

"Don't say a word, Hild."

Ms. Schbiker could only grin widely as she filled out the check and handed it over to him.

Ayame bounded up the two. Her eyes boggled at the numbers on the paycheck.

"Wasn't it a good idea to come in, now?" Aya-chan fondled his braid playfully.

"Uhhhhhhhhh huh!" he planted kisses on her cheeks.

Hilde mumbled, still with a faint smile on.

"Get a room, Maxwell," she threw at him as she turned to leave.

"I CAN NOW! I HAVE ENOUGH MONEY FOR ONEEEEEEEE!"

The young woman at his side gave him a pat on the shoulder while yanking the keys to the black piece of scrap metal from his butt pocket.

"I'll go get the car started!"

"Hold on we hafta talk about constructive ways to spend this money…" Duo analyzed the check, "By the wayyyyyyy…" he tried his best to look inconspicuous about the matter, "what do you want for Christmas, Aya-chan? Anything…in particular…" He rolled his eyes up to the ceiling looking innocent.

"I already told you!" She grinned at him in return, "I dun need some big GIFT!"

"C'mon you hafta tell meeeeeee! I'll find out some other way that will be both annoying and time consuminnnnnnnnnng!"

Ayame sighed as her braided baka put her into a cuddling hug, "…A trip?" she replied "That would be nice…"

"Where?" He blinked, pushing his forehead to hers.

"To Maine! I've always wanted to go there in the winter. Everyone says it's so beautiful when it snows!"

"Then it's settled…you and me in a nice cozy cabin for two."

"You dun hafta…" Ayame smirked at him, tongue poking out between her lips.

"But I want to…" Duo locked his mouth onto hers in a slow kiss…

~~

Within a few minutes both were back in the car.

"I'm gonna drop you off at home…er…Hilde wants me back here to fill out some papers or something and I dunno exactly how long its gonna take."

Her coffee brown eyes smiled at him. "I will be waiting for you attentively. On the couch… asleep!"

"And I will come home and take advantage of that RIGHT AWAY!"

He started up the car and pulled out carefully.

~~

Act 2

~~

                                         Duo's Point of view:

                 Ya know what's so funny about all this…I can't even think about it without wanting to cry. Believe me I never cry. I already know what you're thinking too… "A guy…his age…crying? Heh. Fag." Don't worry I would think the same thing. But being here, and having this happen …it's like some big joke. It's happened so many times before and each time I can't bring myself to belittle it so much so that I keep myself from breaking down into tears. At least it's proof that I still have a soul. It's comforting, really.

                                      End dialogue.

~~

"If I'm not back by nine, Aya, gimme a call…"

The phone on the end table rang.

"Will do, Duo-puppy!" she yelled back from the living room.

He smiled at Ayame's response and picked up the phone.

"Hello? Rei-chan! Hey! Nah piss head aint here…I'll tell him you called…Uh huh…" Duo jotted down a few numbers on a notepad, "What?…Ayame…oh yeah she's here! …how the hell….from Hilde?…Aya is fine, in fact she's practically asleep on the couch right now…Me? I'm heading back over to see Hi-…Listen, Rei-san, no offence or anything but you dun have any place in tellin' me how I should take care of anything or any_one_…uh huh uh huh uh huh! OKAY BYE!" the phone met the hook at lightening speed, "Damn that girl talks too much. She musta gotten all the personable genes Wu missed out on."

"Who was that?" Shinigami purred when he felt his Aya-chan's warm nose nuzzle at his neck.

"No one. If Wufei comes home tell him someone called for him. As for me, I'm heading out."

"Call ya."

"You better!"

Duo grinned widely as he backed his way out the door.

~~

"Keys…" Shinigami shoved the teethed piece of metal into the car door lock and turned it carefully. Something beckoned his gaze upward. He squinted at the bright red car that was parked on the other side of the quiet street across from the house. Oddly enough, it was familiar to him in an eerie way. Duo shrugged it off quickly as a coincidence. He slipped into the drivers seat and started the car. And as if the red car had not even existed, he pulled out of the driveway and started back to the garage.  

~~

The only thing that was hold Ayame back from committing boredom suicide was the movie that would be on around nine o'clock after the overly hyped up soap-ish drama movie was ended.

"This is so bad. This movie musta ruined lives and careers." She gave a short chuckle after the very accurate observation. 

Seconds later there was a sharp knock at the door.

Ayame rolled her eyes, "Lost his keys again. That's my baka…" and with that she clicked off the TV and rose from her cushy seat.

Her hand touched the knob lightly and without a second thought she turned the brass knob a huge smile on her face, ready to pounce on him.

Within that minute about a hundred feelings undulated her. First her smile dropped. Ayame's eyes went wide, and small squeaks started to come out with each shaky breath she expelled. Her face heated up in searing hot blaze and then went cadaverously pale. Ayame's intestines had wrapped themselves around her air pipes and the convulsive shaking of her legs kept her from moving anywhere.

"Hey Ayame…" Otto leaned against the doorframe, a huge, curling smile slapped on his face, sucking in every ounce of fear she exuded, "aww…you look scared…what's wrong?" the calm and almost soothing tone was disturbing.

"P-lease…"

"Please what? Please let you go?" Otto's head lowered, eyes peering up at her almost rolling into the back of his head. His face look blank with any remorse for his premeditated actions. "Mmmm I've waited a long time to find you again. I thought you'd look a little happier than this."

Tears were already flooding down her face and her jaw was seizing, causing a sharp chattering of her teeth. 

The adrenaline, thick in her blood, finally took hold of her body.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!" Ayame spun around and with every bit of energy she had threw herself in a dash down the hall towards Duo's room. If she could get to his gun she would be safe. 

Otto simply pushed himself off the doorframe of the front entrance, licking his lips at the opportunity in front of him. He slowly stalked in, no rush to find her. 

~~

Ayame grabbed the wall and swung herself into the bedroom, slamming the door with a loud bag. She was hysterically sobbing. 

"WHERE THE HELL IS IT?!" she shrieked to herself in a fit, throwing empty drawers out of place and onto the floor. Ayame froze and held her breath. The footsteps coming towards the bedroom door became louder and louder. 

Coffee stained eyes flicked to the closet. Her only refuge. The last place to look for her only choice weapon. 

The door to the crammed closet flew shut. It was the only line of defense left. Where was Duo? Dammit she was so scared. 

Another hard step from outside.

Her sobs were earsplitting, even for a listener outside. Every movement was an excruciating reminder of what was to come within the next few seconds.

Finally the last shoebox to topple off the shelf revealed what she was searching for. With shaky hands, Ayame held the gun, ready to blow the fucker's head off at will.

Silence. The handle shook slightly. 

"Shit …"

Otto stood, poised to strike. 

"A gun? I give you credit Ayame you've gotten balls ever since you've met that guy."

Her cries hiccupped her sentence. Everything was choppy. "If…you don't leave…I will shoot…you"

"Go ahead…pull it." 

Finger. Trigger. Click. 

In a frenzy she gave the trigger another sharp pull. Still nothing. 

"Tough luck…" He squeezed his hand around her fingers that held her weapon so intently. She yelped helplessly and released it, feeling every digit crack in vein, trying to compensate for the crushing pressure, "do you think I wouldn't find you again?" Otto's other hand found its way to her gasping throat, clenching it. 

"I'll make sure you stay this time. I'll drill a hole in your pretty neck and nail your shoulders to the wall maybe that will keep you still…"

Helpless shakes of her head and tears came out all at once. The only word her mouth was able to form was "no" over and over again.

"Invite that friend of yours. I've been sad ever since the time I missed the chance to crush his body under my car. The regret has really gotten to me…and I wouldn't want you to be alone…"

"NO YOU LEAVE DUO ALONE!"

Otto clamped his palm over her mouth keeping the other at her throat, "Why would I want to do such a thing."

~~

Comments anyone? Did it make you feel angst? :/ ?


	18. Chapter 17 Anything for you

Coming down to the wire. Enjoy the rest. I'll explain EVERYTHING in the author's afterword if…anyone cares ^^  (I'm kinda sure someone's gotta…)

~~

Disclaimer: Well, I tried hunting down the producers and creators of Gundam, and it seems as though they found this as a bad thing and now I have a restraining order against me! I'm sorry but no 500 feet will keep me between me and mah Duo…(court hearing will be on channel 10 news at 6 oclock eastern standard time…)

(P.S. I still don't own it)

~~

Life aint no bowl of cherries…

~~

                                            Duo's point of view:

             Wufei gave me a call after he had gotten home that night. Seems like the whole house was trashed after Otto dragged my Aya-chan out. Bless her little head for bein' a fighter, even till the end. 

My first thought was that she hadda be dead in some ditch or lying, bleeding to death (and if that were true I would follow up on the promise I made to that bastard…). 

Somethin' inside me didn't wanna believe that…guess that's how the rest happened. Thank God I'm a stubborn man…

          Some things are worse than death now…I learned that…guess I hadda learn it the hard way though…

                                           End dialogue.

~~

 Time: 8:45

~~

      Chang Wufei stood, hands full and body sweaty, on the doorstep of the humble abode trying to unlock the door that lead into the completely darkened house. 

He had just returned from a lovely practice at a nearby Kendo studio. Swords, swords, more swords, and…no women. A dream come true for WuWu. 

Knob turned. Door opened. 

His black eyes dilated. The tight jaw clenched. His hands became rubber bands that snapped instantly dropping the katanas that he had carefully handled on his walk home.

"Holy shit…"

~~

Duo sagged with boredom in his chair, using the last of his energy to glance up at the ticking clock. His braid frowned in distaste at the stack of papers laid out on the desk.

::All those poor trees…::

Hilde looked up with sympathetic eyes, "I'm almost done…I know this isn't any fun for you. But thank you so much for helping…"

::Dammit, she owes me one so bad…::

Shinigami grinned, bearing it for her sake, "You kiddin' me? I love filling out…tax…forms?"

She smiled back at him. 

"I jus' needa call Ayame by nine…" 

The phone screamed, ending his sentence.

"Must be her now, Maxwell. Your gets…"

His violet eyes grinned happily as his picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

The not-so-calm Wufei on the other line instantly began.

"Maxwell, is your onna in your possession?"

"English, buddy…"

"Is Ayame with you, idiot?"

"…No…wait are you calling from the house?" Duo's stomach began to move around uneasily.

"Yes…that's why I'm asking. The house is totally trashed."

::…that red car…::

"No friggen way…" Shinigami muttered to himself, face turning pale. His eyes were fixated on the red pen shoved in an empty coffee cup on Hilde's desk.

The woman across the desk from his stared in silence, mouth open as if she were about to say something constructive. 

"Duo…what's wrong…"

"Maxwell?! ANSWER! THE WOMAN ISN'T HERE. WHERE. IS. SHE."

::Why the hell didn't I see this. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME!?!?::

~~ 

     Foot slammed on the gas pedal and blinding red rage fueling him, the violet-eyed God of death planned to live up to his name the moment he reached his destination.

"That fucking bastard…" He shoved his hand into the passenger's side glove compartment and without hesitation pulled a jet-black gun from its resting place. 

Shinigami took his hands from the wheel…

The speedometer read fourty miles per hour.

Took off the safety of the gun…

Now fifty.

Checked for ammo…

Fifty-five.

Pocketed a clip…

Sixty.

"Better pray to someone, cause the only fucking way you're gonna keep me from blowing your brains out is by divine intervention and, come to think of, nothin' from heaven or hell can stop Shinigami."

~~

                                                  Duo's point of view:

               Otto was a sick little fuck and stupid as hell…Sorry, just stating a fact.

                                                       End dialogue.

~~

He didn't even bother to pull the keys from his car. It was damn near ten o'clock. The roads near and leading to the torture chamber proclaimed a "house" were deserted. How would Duo approach this? Well, he could walk in, mow down everything in his path and hope he didn't turn Ayame into Swiss cheese.

::I have to think…control…I came here to get her…::

The house was too dark, even for Shinigami. It served to his advantage. 

The God of death snuck in almost completely undetected. The black abyss was all he needed for stealth. Hell, he could have ran up and down the hall screaming and still be considered stealthy.

::Think dammit…I was here before.::

His mind leaked back to the last time he'd darkened these doors. Right after he met her. Why the hell did it hafta feel so right. This right. Enough to drive him feel. To care. It didn't matter if he died. He should have died a long time ago. But if anything happened to her…

::I would never forgive myself…::

Small whimpers, which he had first dismissed as floorboard squeaks, reached his ears and twanged at his eardrums. He fingered the trigger and back hugging the wall to the point that his spinal chord was inseparable from the smooth divider. 

The first approaching room, a bedroom. He cautiously poked his nose around the corner, glancing into the room. Shinigami's eyes went wide.

Ayame was shoved against the wall, only visible because of the weak streetlamp light that was streaming in from a broken window. Her right eye was blacked, probably from a bruise. Bound and gagged, she looked like a motionless doll. The white cloth that silenced her was stained a little with blood. 

::Is she asleep or dead…:: 

The Maxwell Demon's teeth were clenched tightly, trying to sort out his feelings; torn between the desire to save his damsel in distress and the need to follow his instincts.

Within the room, scraping sounds were heard. Aya-chan had apparently awaken and began to struggle with the bindings that held her hands. Tiny whines, louder than the wheezing ones she had expelled before while unconscious, bit at her throat. 

::Aya?…::

He poked his head around the corner once again and watched as she sat there squirming around. 

"Aya-chan…" Shinigami whispered in a low voice. Ayame's head popped up. She blinked around the room and stop at him. Muffled yelling ensued.

"I'm coming into get you…okay?" 

Her head shook wildly in disagreement, which he decided to ignore. Shinigami bent down to undo the bindings.

Still hushed. "Don't worry." Duo was all a-grin, "I'll get you out of here…" He quickly undid her gag. That's when he realized the tears that were running down her face. 

"Why did you come…" She silently scolded him through her tears.

"Wh-." A sharp pain from a quick blow ended his question. 

Ayame screeched as she watched her braided rescuer hit the floor hard. Otto was holding a wrench in his hand, sneering down at his fallen victim. 

Throat clenching in anxiety, Aya gasped out hysteric sobs, pulling desperately at the restraints that still held her still.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

"Shouldn't have come…" Otto loomed over Duo, enjoying the sight of him trying to squirm away as he approached closer.

Otto lowered himself and taking advantage of Shinigami's stated, used the long handle of the wrench to slowly strangle the life out of him. 

"You see…" the bastard started, mirth in his voice…

Otto gripped the heads of the tool tighter and pulled back.

Duo gagged slightly, pulling uselessly.

"…Ayame is mine. And she'll stay that way. Some creatures…don't have meaning." He gave a short matter-of-a-fact laugh.

"And after she watches _you_ die…I'll rape her until she screams your name, slit her wrists and leave her to die staring at your corpse."

Up until this point, Duo had only wanted to kill Otto. Now he wanted to take his bare hands, rip his balls off, and force-feed them to the bastard.

"I…won't…let…you…hurt…her…" Shinigami choked out.

Otto smirked and reeled back harder, "Then stop me." 

Ayame's screeching cries. Otto's words replaying in his head. The thought of everything he had said coming to be a reality…

Had finally snapped him.

"You fuckin' bastard…" 

In one swift move, he pulled the gun from his pocket and blindly fired into the stomach of the man behind him. 

An empty gun clip clicked out of its chamber and fell on the ground. Gracefully, the God of Death replaced it with its sibling, turned into a crouch and fired at the faltering, pre-wounded man. 

Five other quick volleys from the gun chamber were all the demon needed to take out his victim. 

The aged, previously used gun gently hazed a smoke over the scene. Ayame sat quietly, watching the silhouette of her love rise from his offensive position and walk over to her almost somberly. 

The gun immediately met the floor as it fell from its owner's hand.

"Duo, what the hell- your head is bleeding!" In a shaky mess, her legs managed to push her up. 

He staggered closer.

"Dammit I feel dizzy…" He concentrated on the feel of his Aya-chan's palm tending lovingly to his battered skull. His vicious need for blood was soothed by it, caring less about the hole-punched bastard he had shot before and more about getting away from the scene as fast as possible with his regained lover.

"You definitely deserve something for this, Duo-puppy…" she attempted to lighten the mood, hugging him, back facing the scenic blood spatters on the wall where Otto should have laid. 

"If it has something kinky to do with a First Aid kit, I'm in…"

"Anything for you-."

A sharp crackle sounded.

Eye's closed, the body in front of his jerked like a brick was thrown at it's back. An unbearable weight, as if everything good about gravity had escaped from the young woman Shinigami held, bared down. A short spray of red, finite drops stained his clothing at chest level.

Another jerk, more so like a twitch, from his Ayame was produced in an attempt to extinguish the excruciating pain.

Unable to hold both himself and her up, Duo knelt down bringing the body with him.

Her brown eyes stood wide.

No explanation was needed. He knew exactly what had happened. 

The crimson, gaping hole in Ayame's chest did all the explaining in the world.

~~

Anything for you.

~~


	19. In between thinggy Not appart of the sto...

Okay I'm not done yet. Nope you still have MORE! Hahaha!  
  
I'm just oddly torn between two endings. Should Ayame live or die? I have the endings planned for both but I dunno which I would like better. Send an opinion or something if you'd like to give me some in put about what you think would be better. I might play off that and decided to change on my original idea ^^. Alotta stuff popped into my head at the end of this chapter. Hehe.  
  
~Life aint no bowl of cherries~ 


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